LIBRARY 

OF  THK 

University  of  California. 

Mrs.  SARAH  P.  WAI.SWORTH. 

Received  October,  i8g4. 
Accessions  No. Sli>^Z.S^.      Class  No. 

■ 

SOLD    BY 

0.  D.  GROSVENOR, 

75  State  St. 
ROCnESTER.  N.Y. 


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http://www.archive.org/detai.ls/christofapostlesOOscotrich 


THE 


Christ  of  the  Apostles'  Creed: 


THE  VOICE   OP   THE 


CHURCH  AGAINST  ARIANISM,  STRAUSS  AND  RENAN, 


WITH 


AN    APPENDIX. 


Tt  vfiiv  6oKei  rreoi  tov  Xpiorov  ;   rlvo^  vlo^  egtl  ; 

Matt,  xxii.  42. 


'  The  Lord  of  hosts  hath  walked 
This  world  of  man  :  the  one  Almighty  sent 
His  everlasting  S<.n  to  wear  the  flesh, 
And  glorify  this  mortal  human  shape." — Milman. 


BY 

KEY.    W.    A.    SCOTT,    D.    D 


rJi 


PASTOR   OF   THE   42d   6TKEBT   PRESB\TEU1AN    CIIUKCII. 


NEW   YORK: 
ANSON    D.    F.    RANDOLPH, 

770    BROADWAY. 

1867. 


r 

L 


^1- 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  yeiir  1S67, 

By  PwEV.  W.  a.  SCOTT,  D.  D., 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  tho 

Southeru  District  of  New  YorJi. 


MoCkba   and  Milxbb, 

Stereotype  IS, 


THE    APOSTLES'    CREED, 


E   MtUtbt 

in  ©oi  tl)e  Jatl)cr  2llinigl)tn,  maker  of  Ijtamn  anlr  earti) ; 

autr  C  Mtlitbt 

in  jJe0U0  €l)rist  1)10  onin  iSon,  our  forb; 

llll)o  ruQ0  fonccbcli  b^)  tijc  (Join  ©l)O0t,  born  of  tl)c  llirgin 
iflarn  ; 

jSufferA  unbcr  J]ontiu0  JJilote,  xoas  rrucificb,  kalr,  anb 
buvieb ; 

J5c  bc0cntlicir  into  l)cll; 

®l)e  tljiri)  bag  l)c  rose  again  front  tl)e  bcab; 

^t  ascmicb  into  l)caucn,  anb  sittetl)  on  tl)e  rigljt  l)anb 
of  ®ob  tl)c  Jatljcr  ^^linigljtn ; 

from  tl)cnce  l)e  bIjoII  tome  to  jubje  ti}t  quirk  anb  tl)e 
beab. 

3  bdictJe  in  tl)c  (5ols  ®i)O0t ;  €l)c  ijolg  (Catljolic  €I)urcl)  ; 
®l)e  Communion  of  Saint0 ;  ®l)e  forgit)cnc00  of  Bin0 ,  (El)e 
rr0urrcction  of  tl)c  bobji,  anb  tl)e  life  cDcrlasting.    2lmen. 


PREFACE 


Never  since  the  foundation  of  the  world  was  there  so 
much  learning  and  human  intellect  employed  on  Pilate' s 
question:  ''What  shall  I  then  do  with  Jesus  which  is 
called  Christ?"  as  at  this  moment.  But  if  this  was  a 
grave  and  solemn  question  with  the  Roman  Procurator 
and  the  Jewish  people  more  than  eighteen  hundred  years 
ago,  it  is  not  less  important  now.  The  knightly  Roman 
Governor  and  both  Jews  and  Gentiles  made  great  mis- 
takes in  answering  this  question.  Barabbas  was  released 
and  Jesus  was  crucified.  But  when  the  Lord  of  glory 
was  slain  with  wicked  hands,  this  question  did  not  cease 
to  agitate  the  minds  of  both  Jews  and  Gentiles.  Nor  has 
it  ever  been  entirely  at  rest  from  that  day  to  this  ;  but  at 
no  time,  nor  in  any  generation  since  Jesus  was  born,  has 
this  question  excited  as  much  interest  as  it  does  now, 
throughout  the  civilized  world.  For  nearly  fifty  years 
the  leading  Reviews  of  Europe  have  been  heavy  with 
^elaborate  Articles  on  lives  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  Such 
publications  are  almost  endless,  and  their  names  legion. 


VI  PREFACE. 

In  Great  Britain  and  Germany  and  France,  and  perhaps 
even  in  our  country,  theological  and  metaphysical  sub- 
jects are  among  the  most  popular  topics  of  discussion. 
The  public  mind  is  greatly  exercised  on  matters  of  the 
most  solemn  importance  concerning  Christ,  the  Church, 
and  Christianity.  '' Tracts  for  the  Times,"  ''  Essays  and 
Reviews,"  and  ''  Replies  ;"  and  Renan,  Newman,  Pusey, 
and  ''Ecce  Homo,"  are  rivals  for  popularity  with  the 
latest  sensational  novels.  Nor  is  this  to  be  regretted.  For 
although  the  results  are  not  always  such  as  are  to  be  de- 
sired, yet  the  mental  excitement  manifested  on  such  ques- 
tions is  far  more  hopeful  than  indifference  or  stupidity. 
Amid  the  awful  tendency  of  modern  times  to  a  gross 
materialism,  we  hail  this  intellectual  activity  as  a  good 
omen.  All  light,  it  is  true,  is  not  saving,  yet  saving  grace 
always  enters  the  soul  by  light.  And  besides,  this  in- 
tense interest  on  such  subjects  is  in  itself  altogether  justi- 
fiable. For  if  Christianity  is  any  thing,  it  is  every  thing. 
And  as  Scherer  most  feelingly  admits,  a  religion  that  is 
not  positive  is  nothing  at  all.*  And  any  proper  idea  of 
the  Christian  religion  without  some  knowledge  of  the 
person  and  character  of  its  Founder,  is  impossible.  There 
have  been  many  controversies  in  the  Christian  world  on 
minor  points,  concerning  which  different  branches  of  the 
Catholic  Church  took  their  position,  and  in  process  of  time 
have  modified  or  changed  their  grounds.    But  from  Simon 

♦Melanges  d'histoire  religieuse  ;  pp.  250-254. 


PREFACE.  Vll 

Magus  and  Cerintlius  to  Theodore  Parker  and  Renan,  the 
question,  ^' What  think  ye  of  Christ?  Whose  Son  is  He?" 
has  been  a  vital  one.  Faith  in  the  Incarnation,  the  per- 
sonal history,  real  death,  and  Resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ 
is  the  fundamental  article  of  Christianity,  and  without 
this  belief  the  Church  could  have  had  no  existence.  Is 
this  belief  correct  ?  Does  it  rest  on  the  truth,  or  is  it  a 
misbelief  ?  A  conspectus  of  the  theological  and  critical 
literature  of  the  age  would  lead  ns  to  think  that  this, 
beyond  all  comparison,  is  the  most  absorbing  question  of 
our  times.  Perhaps  one  reason  for  this  is,  that  there  is 
more  critical  learning  set  free  from  other  pursuits,  and  at 
leisure  to  be  employed  on  such  investigations,  than  ever 
before.  Our  scholars  are  now  better  acquainted  with  the 
languages  and  dialects  cognate  to  the  Hebrew.  We  know 
more  of  the  habits  and  feelings  of  Oriental  life.  W^e  can 
perhaps  better  apprehend  the  modes  of  thought  common 
to  our  Lord' s  followers  in  His  day,  and  hence  we  are 
brought  more  closely  into  sympathy  with  Him,  and  our 
desire  is  therefore  stronger  to  know  more  fully  the  parti- 
culars of  His  human  life.  Nor  is  it  possible  for  us  to  con- 
ceive of  a  greater  subject,  or  one  that  should  more  ear- 
nestly employ  our  noblest  energies  than  to  apprehend  the 
true  God,  whom  to  know  aright,  and  his  son  Jesus  Christ, 
is  life  eternal. 

Christ  of  the  Apostles'  Creed  !  And  why  not  ? 
According  to  Pearson,  there  are  twelve  articles  in  this 
Creed,  half  of  which  are  concerning  Christ ;   or,  if  we 


VIU  PREFACE. 

count  the  lines  composing  it  as  printed  in  our  Catechism, 
nine  out  of  the  fourteen  are  taken  up  in  defining  and  ex- 
pressing what  we  are  to  believe  concerning  God' s  only 
Son,  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  And  in  the  Nicene  and  the 
so-called  Athanasian  Creed,  quite  as  much  prominence  is 
given  to  explaining  what  we  are  to  believe  concerning 
Christ.  Only  ignorance  or  prejudice  can  say  the  Apostles' 
Creed  is  not  our  Creed.  The  Apostles'  Cre^d  is  common  to 
all  believers  in  Christ.  It  no  more  belongs  to  prelatical 
and  papal  communions  than  does  the  Bible,  or  than  Christ 
himself.  All  branches  of  the  one  great  holy  Catholic 
Church  claiming  to  hold  evangelical  or  orthodox  doctrines, 
believe  in  the  Apostles'  Creed  as  fully  as  they  do  in  the 
Ten  Commandments,  the  Lord' s  Prayer,  or  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount.  It  is  a  part  of  their  symbols  and  is  taught  in 
their  families  and  in  their  schools.  They  do  not  hold  that 
the  Creed  was  given  in  its  present  form  by  inspiration,  as 
the  holy  Scriptures  were,  but  that  it  embodies  the  funda- 
mental doctrines  of  the  Gospel,  as  believed  and  preached 
by  the  Apostles."^  And  if  in  some  quarters  there  are  signs 
of  unduly  exalting  the  rites  and  formularies  of  Christian- 
ity, or  even  a  tendency  in  some  prelatical  zones  towards 
Rome,  there  are,  on  the  other  hand,  evidences  of  a  deep 
and  earnest  awakening,  as  we  believe,  to  the  great  doc- 


*  The  purpose  of  this  volume  does  not  require  a  critical  history  of  the  Apos- 
tles' Creed,  but  a  brief  review  of  false  doctrines  put  forth  in  the  early  ages,  which 
this  Creed  was  intended  to  deny  and  confute,  as  well  as  some  remarks  on  the 
use  of  Creeds,  and  the  Council  of  Nice,  may  be  found  in  our  Appendix. 


PREFACE.  IX 

trines  of  the  Cross,  indicated  by  an  increasing  desire,  in 
many  non-prelatical  communions,  to  make  more  promi- 
nent the  doctrines  of  their  ancient  symbols,  and  to  adhere 
more  steadfastly  to  such  a  platform  as  the  Apostles' 
Creed.  This,  with  an  out-pouring  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  is 
all  we  conceive  to  be  necessary  for  the  latter  day  glory. 

The  occasion  of  the  following  Discourses  is  easily 
described.  In  the  midst  of  other  excitements  and  a  differ- 
ent style  of  preaching,  the  author  felt  a  very  great  desire 
to  hold  up  "the  central  figure  of  the  universe"  more 
prominently  before  the  minds  of  his  hearers.  In  casting 
around  for  a  plan,  he  thought  to  make  Witsius  on  the 
Creed  the  foundation  of  a  series  of  Discourses  on  Christ, 
but  he  soon  became  convinced  it  would  not  be  expedient 
to  follow  this  great  author  as  closely  as  he  had  intended 
to  do  ;  he  therefore  determined  to  adopt  a  plan  of  his  own, 
more  fitted,  according  to  his  judgment,  to  the  necessities 
of  the  times.  Accordingly,  he  applied  himself  to  the  study 
of  Lightfoot,  Baronius,  Barrow,  Hooker,  Bingham,  Lard- 
ner,  Lei  and,  Charnock,  Bates,  Leighton,  Ridgely,  D  wight. 
Hill,  Dick,  Calvin,  and  Hey,  with  a  free  use  of  lexicons 
and  commentators  on  the  points  under  examination.  As, 
however,  I  did  not  find  any  one  of  these  authors,  great  and 
learned  as  they  are,  altogether  such  as  I  thought  just  the 
kind  of  book  I  should  like  to  put  at  this  time  into  the 
hands  of  my  congregation,  I  have  attempted  to  interest 
them  in  the  following  discourses.  /  swear  hy  no  man\^ 
words,  nor  do  I  prcr^si'^WS^j^sio  adopt  any  of  the 


*>' 


> 


s^ 


ff^^'  ' 


X  PEE  FACE. 

authors  referred  to  in  this  volume ;  "but  1  wish  here  to 
acknowledge  the  value  I  set  upon  and  the  use  I  have 
made  of  Witsius'  '^Dissertations  on  the  Apostles'  Creed  ;" 
Burnet's  and  also  Rev.  E.  Harold  Browne's  '^ Exposition 
of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  ;"  Suicer  de  Symb.  ;  Ball  Def. 
Fid.  Nic. ;  Pearson's  '' '  Great'  Exposition  of  the  Creed  ;" 
Bishop  Forbes'  '*  Explanation  of  the  Nicene  Creed  ;"  and 
Harvey's  ''  History  and  Theology  of  the  Three  Creeds." 

Although  freely  using  these  authors,  I  have  followed 
my  own  plan,  and  endeavored  to  present  the  Cheist  of 
THE  Apostles  as  the  great  Saviour  of  the  world.  And  I 
hope  I  shall  not  be  considered  rash  and  presumptuous  for 
venturing  to  preach  and  publish  Discourses  on  subjects 
so  profound  and  so  mysterious,  because  so  many  other 
authors  of  the  highest  culture  and  finest  intellectual 
powers  have  already  put  forth  their  best  efforts  in  the 
same  direction.  It  has  seemed  to  me  the  specialities  of 
the  times  laid  this  duty  on  me,  at  least  as  far  as  my  own 
congregation  was  concerned.  It  is  indeed  not  easy  for  us 
to  realize  the  debt  we  owe  to  the  able  and  learned  defend- 
ers of  our  holy  faith  in  past  ages  ;  and  after  all  the  slurs 
at,  and  attacks  made  upon  our  Creeds,  on  account  of  their 
stiffness,  dry  logic,  and  artificial  and  professional  defini- 
tions, I  am  more  than  ever  convinced  that  we  are  in  greater 
need  of  an  exact  theology  than  at  any  time  since  the  days 
of  the  Apostles.  It  is  one  of  the  many  evidences  of  God' s 
care  over  His  Church,  that  He  has  raised  up  from  age  to 
age  men  qualified  by  learning  and  grace  to  explain,  defend, 


PREFACE.  XI 

and  propagate  the  great  doctrines  of  the  Cross,  which 
have  been  most  surely  believed  by  the  Church  of  God 
from  the  beginning.  And  as  it  has  been,  so  we  believe 
it  will  be.  And  as  every  age  has  its  own  characteristics, 
and  calls  for  its  own  authors,  so  every  man  has  his  own 
anointing  {charisma)^  and  is  called  to  do  his  own  work  in 
his  own  day,  and  to  do  it  well  and  quickly,  and  with  all 
his  might,  for  the  night  of  death  cometh  speedily,  when 
no  man  can  work.  As  the  only  way  to  get  darkness  out 
is  to  let  light  in,  so  my  great  desire  in  these  Discourses 
has  not  been  so  much  to  find  out  novelties  or  to  expose 
false  doctrines  in  detail,  as  to  explain  the  truth  according 
to  the  Divine  Word,  and  with  the  light  of  the  interpreta- 
tion put  upon  it  in* past  ages  by  some  of  the  ablest  and 
most  pious  scholars,  and  thus  to  guide  the  mind  to  a  well- 
grounded  faith  in  the  "  Redeemer  of  God's  elect."  For 
if  Christ  be  formed  in  our  hearts  the  hope  of  glory,  then 
we  are  not  so  easily  led  astray  by  false  doctrines.  ,  If  the 
mind  is  full  of  the  light  of  truth,  error  cannot  enter. 

If  this  volume  should  find  its  way  into  the  hands  of 
the  learned  critic,  I  beg  he  will  remember  that  these  Dis- 
courses are  not  sermons,  but  rather  historical  and  expo- 
sitory Dissertations^  delivered  before  large  assemblies, 
consisting  of  persons  of  all  ages  and  classes  and  conditions 
in  life ;  and  being  continued  from  week  to  week,  some 
repetition  was  occasionally  necessary,  as  also  frequent 
amplifications  and  explanations  that  would  not  have  been 
required  before  a  body  of  theological  students.      And 


XU  PEEFACE, 

they  are  now  published  as  nearly  as  possible  just  as  they 
were  delivered,  and  at  the  desire  of  many  who  were 
interested  in  them  as  they  fell  from  their  author's  lips. 
If  otherwise  qualified,  it  is  well  known  that  the  absorbing 
cares  and  labors  and  sympathies  of  a  city  Pastor  in  our 
times  do  not  allow  leisure  and  strength  for  the  pursuits  of 
literature  as  he  might  desire.  But  God  does  not  require 
every  thing  from  any  one  man. 

I  beg  also  to  invite  the  attention  of  kind  readers,  espe- 
cially of  liberally  educated  young  men,  to  the  ^'Aspect 
of  Modern  Thought  concerning  Christ,"  as  seen  in  our 
examination  of  the  theories  of  Strauss  and  Kenan,  in  the 
Appendix  to  this  volume.  It  is  also  hoped  that  the  brief 
review  of  the  early  heresies  and  philosophical  opinions 
advanced  in  the  early  ages  concerning  Christ,  and  the 
notice  of  the  Arian  controversy,  as  given  in  the  Appendix, 
will  be  acceptable  to  the  reader,  and  increase  his  interest 
in  thes^ Discourses.  The  volumes  which  I  have  ventured 
heretofore  to  offer  to  the  public,  have  been  chiefly  his- 
torical expositions  of  Biblical  characters,  and  designed 
mainly  for  the  young.  In  this  one,  my  earnest  wish  is  to 
promote  the  sincere,  intelligent,  and  humble  belief  of  the 
Truth  concerning  Christ,  and  especially  to  present  Him 
as  He  has  been  believed  on  in  the  world  and  received  up 
into  glory,  an  Almighty  Saviour. 

Nbw  York,  February,  1867. 


CONTENTS 


BELIEVING  IN  THE  NAME   OP  JESUS. 

PAGB 

The  Great  Miracle — Dean  Stanley. — The  only  Rule  of  Faith— The  Name 
Jesus,  its  Etymology  and  Signification — Strong  Attachment  of  early 
Christians  to  the  Person  and  Name  of  Jesus — Bernard's  Hymn 17-32 

II. 

BELIEVING  ON  THE   NAME   CHRIST. 

Use  of  Creeds — Paul's  Style  of  Preaching — The  Faith  of  the  ancient  Jewish 
Church — Cyril  on  the  Name  Christ — Why  Jesus  is  called  Christ — 
Anointing — Hooker  and  Leighton. — Why  we  profess  to  believe  this 
Article 33-43 

IIL 

CHRIST   GOD'S   SON  AND   OUR  LORD. 

Respect  for  the  Proper  Titles  of  Persons — St.  Peter's  Confession  of  Christ 
the  True  Faith — Mystery  on  such  a  Subject  as  the  Persons  of  the  God- 
head— Jesus  is  God  and  Lord — Gregory  Nazianzen,  Theodorei. — Our 
Covenant  a  Sacramental  Oath — Quotations  from  Cleantfies,  Epicteius,  and 
Seneca 49-67 

IV. 

JESUS   "CONCEIVED"   AND   "BORN  OF   THE  VIRGIN  MARY." 

Disbelief— '•Needle-Guns"  now  wanted — "A  Restatement  of  Doctrines — 
Testimony  of  the  Creeds — AtJuinasim. — The  Incarnation — Our  "Goel" 
— Leighton 68-84 


XIV  COKTENTS. 

y. 

CHRIST  SUFFERED   UNDER  PONTIUS   PILATE. 

VXBS 

Kabbinical  Invention  about  two  Messiahs — Pontius  Pilate  and  his  Official 

Report  to  Rome — The  Article  of  the  Creed  abundantly  sustained 85-101 

YI. 

JESUS  CHRIST  WAS  CRUCIFIED. 

King  Clovis — The  Bearing  of  this  Article — The  History  of  the  Cross — The 
Empress  Helena — Death  by  Crucifixion  described — This  Doctrine  funda- 
mental— Christ's  Trophies  still  hanging  on  the  Cross  as  his  Great 
Triumphal  Arch 102-123 

YII. 

GOD'S   ONLY   SON   OUR    "DEAD   CHRIST." 

Christ  Suffering  an  exact  Fulfilment  of  the  Prophecies  of  the  Jewish  Church 
concerning  the  Messiah — The  Specialities  of  this  Article  of  the  Creed 
confuting  Mohammed  and  early  Heretics — Our  Lord's  real  Death,  and 
why — ^Benefits — Luther  on  Willingness  to  die 124-143 

YIIL 

OUR  LORD   CHRIST  BURIED. 

Invited  to  Jesus'  Funeral — The  Hebrew  Belief— Christianity  teaches  Respect 
for  the  Dead  and  their  Bodies — The  Prophecies  fulfilled  in  a  Roman 
Death  and  a  Jewish  Burial — Our  Lord's  Pall-bearers — Why  Jesus  was 
buried — ^Uses  of  this  Article 144-168 

IX. 

"HE   DESCENDED  INTO   HELL. 

Unsatisfactory  State  of  this  Article — Its  History — Use  of  Abstracts — Calvin, 
Dr.  A.  Alexander,  Reformed  Dutch  Church — History  of  Terms,  Sheol, 
Hades^  Hell — Theory  of  Witsius,  Calvin,  and  others  rejected — What  the 
Descent  into  Hell  means 169-193 

X. 

"HELL"  NOT  GEHENNA  NOR  PURGATORY. 

Sheol  and  Hades  among  the  Fathers — Peter's  Argument — Dr.  Barrow  on 
S'lcol — The  Scriptures  know  nothing  of  Christ  in  Gehenna,  nor  of  a 
Limbus  Futrum  . . » » 194-223 


CONTENTS.  XV 

XI. 
CHRIST   ROSE   THE  THIRD   DAY. 

PAQB 

Christ's  Resurrection  a  Vital   Doctrine — Witnesses  and    Proofs — Jewish 

Burial  and  Tomb — Why  Jesus  was  so  long.Buried 224-248 

XII. 

THE  RESURRECTION   HISTORICALLY  DEMONSTRATED. 

Not  incredible— Narratives  not  Fictions — The  Witnesses — -The  Marys — The 

Evidences  as  a  Whole— Benefits  of  this  Doctrine 249-273 

XIIL 

CHRIST  ASCENDED  INTO   HEAVEN. 

Historic  Notice  of  Ascension  Day — Place  from  which  He  Ascended — Sacred 
Associations  with  Nature — Tiyne  of  the  Ascension — The  Fact  itself  and 
the  Proofs — With  what  Body  He  Ascended — Why  He  Asctnded,  and 
the  Benefits 274-295 

XIV. 

"AND  SITTETH  ON  THE   RIGHT   HAND   OP  GOD." 

Our  Lord's  "  Session  "  at  the  Right  Hand  of  God — Heaven  of  Heavens — Sir 
William  Rowan  Hamilton's  Suggestion  that  our  Lord  was  Ten  Days  in 
Ascending — Equality  with  the  Father — The  Place  of  Honor — Siiting 
and  Standing — Why  He  sitteth  at  the  Right  Hand  of  God 296-313 

XV. 

CHRIST   COMING  TO  THE   LAST  JUDGMENT. 

History  of  this  Article,  and  its  Points  concerning  the  Coming  of  Christ  in  the 
Last  Judgment — Paul  on  Eternal  Judgment — The  Doctrine  as  set  forth 
in  the  Confession  of  Faith — Flace  and  Time  of  the  Last  Judgment — Jesus 
Chihst  the  Judge,  his  Qualifications  for  this  Office — Augustine. — Proofs 
of  God's  Love 314-337 

XVI. 

CHRIST  JUDGING  THE  WORLD. 

Christ  is  the  Final  Judge  of  Quick  and  Dead— The  Day  is  fixed— It  follows 
the  General  Resurrection — Premonitions  and  Moral  Proofs  of  the  Judg- 
ment—Unfinished Problems— Awful  Splendor  of  the  Day — The  Parties 


XV^l  OONTEITTS. 

Txon 
Judged — Sins  of  the  Qodlj — Our  Responsibilities  in  Yiew  of  the  Last 
Judgment 338-357 

XVIT. 

RULES  OF  CHRIST'S  FINAL  JUDGMENT. 

"Orations"  on  the  Last  Judgment — Br.  Watts  on  "According  to  their  "Works," 
Distinct  separate  Destinies — Proceedings  public — Eternity  unchange- 
able follows — The  terrible  Individuality  of  the  Last  Day — Doctrines  and 
Lessons  from  the  Day  of  Final  Judgment 358-381 

The  Appendix,  page  383. 

For  chief  things  in  tho  Appendix,  see  Contents  to  Appendix,  page  431. 


I. 


BELIEVING  IN  THE  NAME  OF  JESUS. 


"  And  this  is  His  commandment,  that  we  should  believe  on  the  name  of  His 
Son  Jesus  Christ,  and  love  one  another,  as  He  gave  us  commandment." — 1  John 
iil  23. 

Jesus  Christ  is  "the  greatest  miracle  of  history.'* 
He  is  himself  the  strongest  "  testimony  to  Christianity." 
And  man  himself  is  the  most  complete  proof  that  he 
needs  Christ.  Human  history  is  an  illuminated  pictorial 
series  demonstrating  man's  need  of  a  Saviour,  just  such 
as  the  Gospel  makes  known  to  us.  ''For  after  that  in 
;he  wisdom  of  God  the  world  by  wisdom  knew  not  God, 
it  pleased  God  by  the  foolishness  of  preaching  to  save 
them  that  believe."  "But  of  him  are  ye  in  Christ  Jesus, 
who  of  God  is  made  unto  us  wisdom,  and  righteousness, 
and  sanctification,  and  redemption  :  That  according  as  it 
is  written,  He  that  glorieth,  let  him  glory  in  the  Lord." 
1  Cor.  i.  21,  30,  31.  "  When  the  fulness  of  the  time  was 
come,  God  sent  forth  his  Son,  made  of  a  woman,  made 
under  the  law,  to  redeem  them  that  were  under  the 
law."     Gal.  iv.  4,  5. 

Dean  Stanley  well  says:  "First  and  above  all, 
stand  those  great  moral  doctrines  of  the  Gospel,  to  which 


18  BELEEVESTG   EN    TIEE   NAME   OF   JESUS. 

the  highest  place  has  been  assigned,  beyond  dispute,  in  the 
Gospel  itself.  But,  next  after  these,  ecclesiastical  history 
teaches  us  that  the  most  vital,  the  most  comprehensive, 
the  most  fruitful  has  been,  and  is  still — not  the  supre- 
macy of  the  Bible,  or  the  authority  of  its  several  books  ; 
not  the  power  of  the  Pope  or  of  the  Church  ;  not  the 
sacraments,  not  original  sin,  not  predestination,  not  justi- 
fication, but  the  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation."^  'Now,  if 
I  am  not  mistaken  in  my  reading  of  Dean  Stanley' s  vari- 
ous works,  there  is  in  them  a  decided  tendency  to  Broad 
Churchism,  and  perhaps  to  Monotheism  or  Sabellianism, 
with  which  I  cannot  sympathize.  I  say  this,  however, 
in  no  invidious  sense.  What  I  wish  here  to  say  is  mainly 
this,  that  I  am  not  willing  to  be  held  responsible  for  the 
opinions  or  views  of  any  author,  however  learned  or  great 
his  reputation,  whom  I  quote,  except  as  far  as  I  expressly 
adopt  them.  I  acknowledge  no  king  in  Zion  but  the 
LoPwD  Jesus,  and  no  Rule  of  Faith  but  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  Nor  do  I  wish  here  to  dogmatize  in  any 
unfriendly  manner  on  the  great  question  of  the  relative 
importance  of  the  doctrines  taught  in  the  Word  of  God. 
It  is  not  for  me  to  settle  the  proportion  or  quantity  of  the 
doctrines  of  Revelation  necessary  to  salvation,  but  in  this 
case,  as  I  understand  the  Dean,  we  have  the  truth,  the 
great  truth.  For  whatever  may  be  said  of  the  point  of 
a  standing  or  falling  church,  our  holy  religion,  from 
beginning  to  end,  depends  upon  the  Incarnation.  This 
certainly  was  included  in  the  Apostle's  direction : 
''Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  thou  shalt  be 
saved."  God  the  Father  Almighty  is  known  to  us  by 
His  two  great  works  of  creation  and  redemption.  The 
Gospel  of  St.  John  opens  with  a  solemn  declaration  that 
the  Son  of  God  is  the  author  of  both  these  works.     ''In 

*  Ijecture  V.,  on  Eastern  Church. 


CHRIST   THE   CREATOR.  19 

the  "beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the  Word  was  with 
God,  and  the  Word  was  God."  "All  things  were  made 
by  Him.  And  the  Word  was  made  flesh  and  dwelt 
among  us,  and  we  beheld  His  glory,  the  glory  as  of  the 
only  begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth." 
It  is  impossible  by  any  fair  interpretation  of  these  verses 
to  deny  that  the  Word  means  Jesus  the  Son  of  God. 
*'The  Word  was  God,"  and  "all  things  were  made" 
by  the  same  Word,  and  this  same  "  Word  was  made 
flesh."  The  author  of  creation  is  God  the  Son,  and 
the  same  is  the  author  of  the  work  of  redemption.  As 
creatures  and  subjects  of  moral  government,  therefore, 
we  have  a  deep  concern  in  apprehending  the  true  char- 
acter of  the  Son  of  God,  for  He  is  our  Creator  and  our 
final  Judge.  But  it  is  still  more  important  for  us  as 
sinners  to  apprehend  the  mercy  of  God  in  Christ,  and 
receive  Him  as  our  Saviour.  The  work  of  redemption 
at  once  implies  our  ruin  and  misery,  and  declares  the 
necessity  for  the  Son  of  God  becoming  our  Mediator. 
As  sin  has  separated  us  from  God,  iand  as  the  very  idea 
of  religion  implies  our  reconciliation  to  God,  so  there  is 
no  religion  without  faith.  For  whosoever  cometh  to  God 
must  believe  that  He  is,  and  that  He  is  what  He  reveals 
Himself  to  be  in  his  Word.  There  is  no  reconciling  the 
sinner  with  God — no  coming  of  the  sinner  to  God — no 
receiving  of  the  sinner  by  God — without  a  Mediator. 
This  Mediator  is  God' s  only  Son,  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 
There  is  for  us  as  sinners  no  such  a  thing  as  truly  believ- 
ing in  God  the  Father,  but  by  believing  in  Jesus  Christ 
His  Son.     "  No  man  comes  unto  the  Father  but  by  me." 

It  is  true,  there  is  a  place  for  repentance  and  prayers 
and  a  new  obedience  ;  but  nothing  brings  us  to  God 
except  faith  in  Jesus.  Nothing  washes  away  our  sins 
but  the  blood  of  the  La,mb  otGod^^,  We  cannot  worship 


20  BELIEVmG   IN   THE   NAME   OF   JESUS. 

God  but  througli  Christ.  We  cannot  see  God  but  in 
Christ,  nor  can  God  look  on  us  in  love  but  as  He  sees  us 
in  Christ.  There  is  then  a  specialty  in  our  professing  to 
believe  in  Jesus  Christ  that  we  must  not  overlook. 

1.  In  our  text,  the  sura  of  our  duty  is  declared  to  be  to 
believe  on  the  Name  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  to  love  one 
another  as  He  hath  commanded  us.  This  is  the  com- 
mandment of  God  Himself.  In  other  Scriptures  we  are 
taught  that  we  must  worship  the  Son  as  we  worship  the 
Father — honor  Him  as  we  honor  the  Father — and  we  are 
commanded  to  hear  Him  rather  than  Moses  or  Elias,  and 
we  are  taught  to  ascribe  the  names,  works,  titles,  and  per- 
fections to  Him  that  we  find  given  to  God  in  the  Scrip- 
tures. But  here  a  positive  command  from  God  is  given 
to  believe  in  the  Name — that  is,  in  the  Person,  character, 
and  mission  of  His  Son  Jesus  Christ. 

2.  As  a  commandment  of  God,  the  text  not  only 
implies  duty  on  our  part,  but  grace  from  God.  '*  Faith 
in  Jesus  Christ  is  a  saving  grace  alone,  whereby  we  re- 
ceive and  rest  upon  Him  for  salvation,  as  He  is  offered  to 
us  in  the  Gospel."  The  gift  is  grace,  and  the  exercise  of 
it  is  God  working  in  us.  It  is  God's  commandment  that 
we  should  believe  on  his  Son.  So  Jesus  commanded  the 
man  at  the  pool  of  Bethesda  to  rise  and  walk,  and  enabled 
Mm  to  obey.  The  same  is  true  of  the  man  with  a  with- 
ered hand.  The  command  was  accompanied  with  the 
gift  of  power  to  obey. 

3.  Note  also  that  we  have  clear  illustrations  from  the 
Scriptures  that  Duty  and  Grace  are  joined  together. 
''  Work  out  your  own  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling  ; 
For  it  is  God  which  worketh  in  you  both  to  will  and  to 
do  of  his  good  pleasure."    Phil.  ii.  12,  13.     In  the  text 


BELIEF   god's    COMMAND.  21 

the  command  of  faith  and  the  command  of  lore  are  linked 
and  knit  together,  as  if  the  weight  of  our  salvation  hung 
equally  and  alike  upon  both  ;  as  without  faith  it  is  im- 
possible to  please  God,  so  it  is  equally  impossible  to 
please  Him  without  love.  No  duty  will  profit  without 
faith,  and  no  faith  will  profit  without  love.  As  whatever 
is  not  of  faith  is  sin,  so  whatever  duty  we  perform  with- 
out love  to  our  fellow-men  and  towards  God  is  not  ac- 
cepted of  God.  If  I  give  all  my  goods  to  feed  the  poor, 
and  have  not  love,  I  am  nothing.     See  BurMtt, 

The  specialty  of  the  text,  then,  is,  that  God  commands 
us  by  the  Gospel  to  believe  in  His  Son  Jesus  Christ — to 
come  to  Him  pleading  His  name  and  merits,  that  we  may 
obtain  the  forgiveness  of  sin  and  the  blessings  of  salva- 
tion ;  and  that  for  His  sake,  and  after  His  example,  we 
should  love  one  another,  and  be  liberal  and  self-denying 
and  charitable,  even  as  Christ  himself  hath  loved  us  and 
given  Himself  for  us.  It  is  this  that  makes  a  Christian 
a  follower  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  a  child  of  God,  an  heir  of 
glory. 

My  principal  purpose  for  the  present,  however,  in 
reference  to  the  text,  is  to  offer  some  remarks  on  believ- 
ing in  Jesus,  or  rather  on  Jesus  as  the  object  of  belief. 
Faith,  belief,  and  the  authority  of  the  Divine  command 
and  the  reasons  for  obedience,  cannot  be  here  dwelt  upon. 
The  second  Article  of  our  Creed  is,  ''  And  (I  believe)  in 
Jesus  Christ,  His  only  Son  our  Lord."  Here  are  three 
leading  subjects :  1st.  The  double  name  given  to  our 
Lord  ;  2d.  His  relation  to  the  Father  is  declared :  His 
only  Son  ;  3d.  His  dominion  over  us,  and  our  submission 
to  Him  as  our  Sovereign  Lord.  Or  perhaps  I  should 
be  more  easily  understood  if  I  said,  we  have  here 
four  titles  ascribed  to  our  Lord : 


22  BELiEvma  m  the  name  of  jesus. 

I.  His  proper  name,  Jesus,  which  like  other  Bible 
names  is  also  significant,  and  in  his  case  truly  significant, 
of  his  character  and  work. 

IL  We  have  the  name  of  his  office,  Chkist. 

III.  His  nature— He  is  God's  only  Son. 

ly.  His  dignity— OUR  Lord. 

I  limit  myself  this  evening  to  the  Name  Jesus :  "  And 
this  is  his  commandment,  that  we  should  helieve  on  the 
Name  of  his  Son  Jesus  Christ.' 

Then  let  us  attend  to  the  Name,  and  see  how  its  mean- 
ing is  realized. 

I.  The  Name  of  a  person,  according  to  the  usage  of 
Holy  Scripture,  signifies  the  person  himself,  his  authority, 
and  all  that  is  implied  in  or  expressed  by  his  titles. 
And  so  far  are  our  Lord's  names  and  titles  from  being 
insignificant,  that  it  is  boldly  affirmed  by  our  best  scholars 
that  the  name  of  Jesus  is  possessed  of  a  dignity  and 
meaning  superior  to  all  the  other  names  ascribed  to 
him,  or  even  of  God  the  Father,  and  that  it  is  for  this 
reason  it  is  said,  ''His  name  is  above  every  name,  and 
that  at  it  every  knee  shall  bow,  and  every  tongue  con- 
fess that  He  is  Lord." 

It  is  not  considered  that  the  double  name  Jesus  Christ 
is  to  be  reckoned  as  a  proper  and  surname.  This  desig- 
nation is  not  like  Simon,  with  the  surname  Peter,  or  John, 
whose  surname  is  Mark,  but  like  John  the  Baptist ; 
that  is,  a  proper  name  with  an  official  title.  Jesus  was 
his  proper  name,  and  Christ  his  official  title.  The 
learned  have  also  called  our  attention  to  the  fact  that  one 
of  these  names  is  Hebrew  and  the  other  Greek,  and  that 


JESUS    IS    SAVIOUE.  23 

these  names  are  intended  to  signify  that  the  Son  of  God 
is  a  Saviour  alike  to  Jews  and  Gentiles, — a  light  to  lighten 
the  Gentiles  and  the  glory  of  his  people  Israel.  Perhaps, 
too,  the  first  name  is  Hebrew  and  the  other  Greek,  to 
show  that  salvation  is  of  the  Jews — to  the  Jew  first,  and 
also  to  the  Greek.  Salvation  is  of  the  Jews,  as  a  fountain 
or  reservoir,  until  the  time  appointed  of  the  Father  ;  then 
it  overflowed.  As  in  baptism,  the  second  place  is  as- 
signed to  the  Son,  so  the  same  order  is  followed  in  the 
Creed.  And  as,  in  declaring  our  belief  "in  God  the 
Father  Almighty,  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth,"  we  ac- 
knowledge His  attributes  of  power  and  majesty,  so  also 
by  believing  in  Jesus  Christ  we  accept  of  his  miraculous 
history,  and  believe  in  his  whole  life,  sufferings,  and 
work,  from  his  birth  to  his  coming  in  glory  as  the  Judge 
of  quick  and  dead.  Nor  is  it  without  reason  that  the 
name  Jesus  Christ  is  made  a  part  of  this  Article  of  the 
Creed.  Particular  significancy  is  attached  to  the  name. 
Twice  do  we  find  the  angel  referring  to  it.  Speaking 
to  Joseph,  he  said,  "  She  shall  bring  forth  a  son,  and 
thou  shalt  call  his  name  Jesus  ;  for  He  shall  save  his 
people  from  their  sins."  And  on  another  occasion,  the 
angel  said  to  the  Virgin  Mother,  "Behold,  thou  shalt 
conceive  in  thy  womb  and  bring  forth  a  son,  and  shalt 
call  his  name  Jesus.  He  shall  be  great,  and  shall  be 
called  the  Son  of  the  Highest ;  and  the  Lord  God  shall 
give  unto  him  the  throne  of  his  father  David."  The  name, 
then,  was  intended  to  be  significant.  Its  etymology  ad- 
mits of  a  twofold  analysis.  One  is  intimated  by  the 
first  angelic  announcement,  which  is  a  direct  interpretation 
of  the  name,  "for  He  shall  save  his  people  from  their 
sins."  This  may  be  understood  as  from  the  Hebrew 
Hiphil  infinitive  Hoslieang  (J/*^iri)  as  an  abstract  term, 
Salvation,  or  as  the  concrete,  Saviour.  The  meaning, 
then,  is,  "He  is  salvation,"  that  is,  "He  shall  save." 


24  BELIEVING   IN   THE   NAME    OF   JESUS. 

The  other  etymology  attaches  the  name  Je  Hovah  to  the 
name  Jesns  by  the  use  of  the  letter  J,  as  the  pronominal 
prefix:  ''^He  shall  save,"  in  which  case  J  represents  the 
abbreviated  form  Jeho^  which  occurs  several  times  in 
the  Bible,  as  in  Je>^o-ram,  /e/^oshaphat,  &c.  This  inter- 
pretation is  also  according  to  the  very  order  of  the  words 
in  the  JS'icene  Creed.  Closely  after  the  Eternal  Word  is 
declared  to  be  God  of  God,  it  is  added:  "Who  for  us 
men,  and  for  our  salvation,  came  down  from  heaven,  and 
was  incarnate  by  the  Holy  Ghost  of  the  "Virgin  Mary." 
That  is,  as  his  name  intimates,  He  is  "Jesus,  Jehovah, 
Salvation." 

The  angelic  announcement  of  the  name  Jesus,  then,  was 
exceedingly  emphatic.  "  Jehovah  shall  save."  "Thou 
shalt  call  his  name  Jesus ;  He  shall  be  great,  and  shall 
be  called  the  Son  of  the  Highest — to  give  the  knowledge 
of  salvation  unto  his  people  by  the  remission  of  their 
sins."  Luke  i.  33-77.  According  to  our  understanding, 
then,  of  the  angelic  announcement,  Jesus  is  only  an  ab- 
breviation of  the  two  names  of  Jehovah  Joshuah,  that 
is,  Jehovah,  Salvation.*  The  Hebrews  were  familiar 
with  this  combination.  Thus  in  Exo.  xiv.  13  :  "Fear  not, 
stand  still,  and  see  the  salvation  of  the  Lord."  Here  the 
Hebrew  words  are  Jehovah  Joshuah,  and  the  very  same 
form  occurs  in  2  Chron.  xx.  17.  'Nor  is  this  interpretation 
set  aside  by  saying  that  our  name  Jesus  is  Greek-Latin, 
for  it  is  confessedly  the  Greek  rendering  of  the  Hebrew 
Jeshua  or  Joshua,  just  as  we  have  Ose  for  Hosea,  Mes- 
sias  for  Messiah,  Esaias  for  Isaiah,  Zecharias  for  Zacha- 
riah.  Nor  is  this  view  interfered  with  by  the  fact  that 
the  name  Joshua  or  Jeshu  was  common  amons;  the  Jews. 


See  Harvej  on  the  Creed,  1  vol,  p.  165  e<  seq.  Also  Witsius. 


THE   DISTmGUISHJNG    IfAME.  25 

The  first  individual  having  this  name  may  be  regarded 
as  typifying  the  Son  of  God.  Joshua,  you  know,  was  the 
leader  of  the  chosen  people  into  the  Land  of  Promise, 
which  was  a  type  of  the  rest  that  remaineth  for  the  people 
of  God  in  heaven.  Even  some  of  those  writers  who  have 
wished  to  get  rid  of  a  Hebrew  etymology  for  the  name 
Jesus,  seek  to  derive  it  from  a  Greek  word  having  the 
same  signification,  for  example,  loi,  making  its  future  £«<y<^, 
and  thence  laaouq^  and  by  changing  alpha  into  eta,  Irjaooc;^ 
Jesus,  meaning  one  w7io  heals.  The  great  Witsius  on  this 
subject  gives  a  remarkable  quotation  from  Babhi  HaJc- 
Jcados  in  support  of  Theophylact's  declaration,  that 
"the  name  Jesus  is  not  Greek,  but  Hebrew,"  which  is 
this  :  "  Because  Messiah  shall  save  mankind.  He  will  be 
called  Jeshua.  But  the  people  of  another  nation,  who 
shall  embrace  his  religion,  will  call  him  Jesus  ;  and, 
therefore,  you  find  this  name  Jesu  pointed  out  in  Gen. 
xlix.  10.  For  the  first  letters  of  the  Hebrew  words  for 
until  S7iilo7i  come^  form  the  name  i^*  Jesu." 

The  name,  then,  may  have  belonged  to  Joshua,  and 
still  its  full  signification  have  been  reserved  for  Christ 
Jesus.  In  its  fullest  sense  the  name  Jesus  means  Jeho- 
vah—Salvation. That  is,  in  Himself  He  is  God,  and 
in  relation  to  us.  He  is  the  salvation  of  God — He  is  God 
our  Saviour.  I  have  said  that  Jesus  is  the  Greek  for  the 
Hebrew  of  Joshua,  and  that  the  name  was  not  an  uncom- 
mon one  among  the  Jews  in  Apostolic  times.  See  Acts 
xiii.  6 ;  Col.  iv.  11 ;  Heb.  iv.  8.  Still  there  is  no  room 
for  any  confusion  or  uncertainty  as  to  the  name  applied 
to  our  Lord.  It  was  assigned  to  him  twice  before  his 
birth,  and  was  given  to  him,  according  to  Hebrew  usage, 
when  he  was  dedicated  to  God.  For  when  "eight 
days  were  accomplished  for  the  circumcising  of  the  child, 
his  name  was  called  Jesus,  which  was  so  named  of  the 


26  BELIEVING    IN   THE   NAME   OF   JESUS. 

angel  Ibefore  he  was  conceived  in  the  womb."     Luke 
ii.  21. 

He  was  also  distinguished  from  others  hearing  the 
same  name  by  the  place  of  his  residence,  and  by  his  re- 
puted father's  name.  Thus  he  was  called  "  Jesus  of 
Nazareth,"  *' Jesus  the  son  of  Joseph;"  and  in  process 
of  time,  '*  Jesus  Christ,"  and  then  "the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ."  The  general  meaning,  then,  of  our  Lord's  proper 
name  is  Deliverer,  Saviour,  or,  more  strictly  in  accord- 
ance with  Hebrew  idiom,  Jehovah  ouPw  Salvation,  or 
Jehovah  the  Savioue. 

Eusehius  says,  "the  name  Jesus  translated  into  the 
Greek  language  signifies  the  salvation  of  God — that  is, 
the  salvation  of  Jehovah."  And  this  interpretation  is 
supported  by  Hebrew  usage.  Joshua,  who  was  a  type  of 
our  Saviour,  was  first  called  HosJiea  ;  but  Moses  prefixed 
the  letter  Jod,  and  changed  it  into  JehosJiua^  Joshua. 
The  reason  for  this  is  thought  to  have  been  threefold  : 

1.  By  this  prefix  a  more  certain  assurance  was  given 
to  Joshua  himself  that  Jehovah  would  be  with  him  in 
the  conquest.  The  prefix  united  his  name  with  God' s, 
and  then  it  meant :  He  shall  save, 

2.  The  people,  perceiving  that  God  had  thus  joined 
his  own  name  with  that  of  their  leader,  were  more  willing 
to  obey,  and  more  courageous  and  hopeful. 

3.  Moses,  being  a  prophet,  foresaw  that  Joshua  was  a 
type  of  the  coming  Messiah,  and  therefore  attached  this 
sacred  prefix  to  his  name.  Nor  is  it  altogether  unworthy 
of  notice,  that  the  name  thus  composed  contains  all  the 
letters  of  the  name  Jehovah,  the  true  God. 

II.  In  the  second  place,  when  we  profess  our  faith, 
and  say,  /  believe  in  Jesus,  that  He  is  Christ,  the  only 


SALVATION   FROM    Sm.  27 

Son  of  God,  our  Lord,  how  are  we  to  understand  that  the 
name  Jesus  fulfils  its  signification  % 

When  the  angel  announced  that  his  name  shall  be 
called  '' Jesus, ^''  he  added,  ''for  he  shall  save  his 
people  from  their  sins."  Save  not  by  setting  up  a  tem- 
poral kingdom — Save  not  by  merely  setting  a  virtuous  ex- 
ample— Save  not  by  merely  explaining  the  doctrines  of  the 
Gospel,  not  merely  by  working  stupendous  miracles  and 
dying  a  martyr  for  the  truth.  He  shall  save  not  simply 
by  rising  from  the  dead,  and  opening  up  the  way  to  im- 
mortality and  everlasting  glory,  but  He  shall  save  his 
people  from  their  sins  by  offering  himself  once  for  all 
a  sacrifice  to  satisfy  Divine  Justice  and  reconcile  them  to 
God.  "  But  this  man,  after  he  had  offered  one  sacrifice 
for  sins,  for  ever  sat  down  on  the  right  hand  of  God. 
For  by  one  offering  he  hath  perfected  for  ever  them  that 
are  sanctified — for  having  himself  purged  our  sins,  sat 
down,"  &c.  See  Heb.  i.  3  ;  x.  12, 14.  To  understand,  there- 
fore, the  name,  Jesus,  a  Saviour,  we  must  remember — 

I.  Our  state  by  nature — dead  in  trespasses  and  in 
sins.  Children  of  disobedience  and  of  wrath — sinners, 
poor  and  blind  and  miserable.     And  then — 

II.  That  Jesus  procures  and  applies  to  us  a  real,  spirit- 
ual and  eternal  salvation.  But  what  is  salvation  ?  What 
is  it  to  be  saved  ?  Is  it  not  freedom  from  evil  and  a  par- 
ticipation in  all  good  ?  Is  it  not  deliverance  from  sin, 
which  is  the  greatest  of  all  evils — redemption  from  sin,  its 
curse,  pollution,  dominion,  and  damning  power  ?  Sin  was 
so  prominently  in  the  mind  of  the  angel  as  the  sum  of  all 
misery  that  he  speaks  of  no  other  evil.  As  if  he  meant 
to  say,  Jesus  saves  his  people  from  all  real  evils  in  saving 
them  from  their  sins.  And  that  this  is  the  true  view  of 
sin,  we  have  only  to  reflect  that  it  is  the  abominable  thing 


28  BELIEVING   IN   THE   NAME   OF   JESUS. 

that  God  hates.  Its  odiousness  lies  in  its  being  the  very 
work,  image,  and  chief  delight  of  the  devil,  whose  works 
Jesus  came  to  destroy. 

It  is  an  extremely  vile  kind  of  pollution,  which  infects 
the  soul.  It  is  a  tyrannizing  domination  that  binds  around 
our  limbs  and  our  very  souls  the  heaviest  and  most  gall- 
ing chains.  And  it  taints  the  conscience  with  a  sense  of 
guilt,  which  is  a  heavy  punishment.  It  is  guilt  that  makes 
an  accusing  conscience — and  awakens  a  certain  fearful 
looking  for  of  judgment  and  fiery  indignation,  which  sliall 
devour  the  adversary.  Sin  is  the  fountain-head  of  all 
misery ;  hence  if  it  is  put  away,  if  we  are  saved  from  sin, 
we  are  saved  from  all  real  evil.  There  is  only  one  thing 
therefore  to  be  afraid  of,  and  that  is  sin — only  one  thing 
to  desire,  and  that  is  to  be  saved  from  our  sins — for  that 
implies  God' s  favor,  which  is  heaven  and  eternal  salvation. 
"Blessed  is  the  man  whose  transgression  is  forgiven." 

By  all  this,  however,  I  must  not  be  understood  to  mean 
that  there  is  not  something  positive  in  our  salvation.  We 
are  not  only  redeemed/rom  sin^  but  redeemed  to  rigMeous- 
ness  and  true  holiness  forever.  Not  only  saved  from  sin, 
but  saved  to  heavenly  bliss.  Salvation  is  not  all  a  nega- 
tive. A  state  of  happiness  is  deliverance  from  evil  into 
a  state  of  good.  Darkness  is  dispelled  by  light,  but  light 
itself  is  a  reality ;  nakedness  is  remedied  by  clothing,  and 
poverty  is  removed  by  abundance  :  so  sin  is  taken  away 
in  respect  to  its  guilt  by  our  propitiation,  the  Lamb  of 
God,  and  in  regard  to  its  pollution  and  dominion  by  the 
renewing  of  the  heart  and  the  indwelling  of  the  Holy 
Spirit. 

In  order,  then,  to  our  salvation  by  Jesus,  we  must  have 
justification  of  life,  true  holiness,  and  communion  with 
God ;  and  this  brings  peace  of  conscience,  and  lastly  the 


GOD   IN    CHRIST    WITH   US.  29 

enjoyment  of  God  in  glory.  This  is  the  salvation  of 
Jehovah  Jesus,  which  He  has  provided,  purchased,  and 
applies  to  all  who  believe  in  Him. 

And  this  He  did  by  taking  upon  himself  our  guilt. 
For,  being  God-man,  he  could  bear  the  weight,  and  give 
ample  satisfaction  to  Divine  Justice  for  our  sins.  For 
Christ  hath  redeemed  us  from  the  curse  of  the  law,  being 
made  a  curse  for  us.  By  his  obedience  righteousness 
comes  upon  all  men  to  justification  of  life,  and  grace 
reigns  through  righteousness  unto  eternal  life.  Hence  the 
Apostle  is  able  to  say,  ''  God  is  in  Christ,  reconciling  the 
world  unto  himself,  not  imputing  their  trespasses  unto 
them." 

This  salvation  is  applied,  as  our  theologians  say,  ini- 
tially in  this  life,  and  perfectly  in  the  world  to  come. 
Believers  have  the  first-fruits  here,  and  the  full  harvest 
in  the  future  life.  *'He  that  believeth  on  the  Son  hath 
everlasting  life,  and  is  saved  by  hope."  Jesus  lives  now 
as  the  Intercessor  witli  the  Father.  By  His  Spirit  in  the 
ministry  of  His  Word,  He  calls,  invites,  and  draws  to 
himself  His  people.  They  are  born  again,  are  penitent, 
regenerated,  and  believing,  and  made  heirs  of  glory. 
And  at  death  He  receives  the  soul  immediately  into  His 
kingdom  above. 

Jesus  fulfils  the  meaning  of  His  Name,  then,  by  pro- 
curing salvation  for  His  people  and  applying  it  to  them. 
But  to  receive  this  salvation,  we  must  receive  Him.  This 
Is  the  ''commandment  of  God,  that  we  should  believe  on 
the  name  of  His  Son  Jesus  Christ."  There  is  but  one 
God,  and  one  Mediator  between  God  and  man,  the  man 
Christ  Jesus.  Nor  is  there  any  other  Mediator.  There  is 
no  other  Saviour.  "Him  hath  God  exalted  with  his 
right  hand  to  be  a  Prince  and  a  Saviour."     "  For  God 


30  BELIEVIKa   IN   THE   NAME   OF   JESUS. 

hath  highly  exalted  him,  and  given  him  a  name  which  is 
above  every  name  :  that  at  the  name  of  Jesus  every  knee 
shall  bow,  of  things  in  heaven,  and  things  in  earth,  and 
things  under  the  earth."     Phil.  ii.  9,  10. 

In  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ  we  have  the  God-man. 
God  the  Son  is  here,  and  man  is  here,  with  a  reasonable 
soul  and  a  true  human  body,  and  thus  God  and  man  meet. 
This  is  proof  of  man' s  restoration  to  the  image  in  which 
he  was  created.  And  this  is  proof  also  that  there  is  a 
God,  a  truly  living  personal  God,  in  contradistinction  to 
the  dead  god  of  deism,  the  far-off  indifferent  god  of 
heathenism,  or  the  impersonal  force  or  power,  or  natura 
naturans^  of  unbelieving  Science  and  of  German  transcen- 
dentalism, or  pantheism,  which  is  atheism.  The  necessi- 
ties of  my  nature  are  such  that  God  must  come  down  to 
me,  or  I  can  never  glorify  and  enjoy  him.  He  must  take 
pity  on  me,  and,  self-moved,  come  down  to  me  and  seek 
me,  or  I  can  never  go  up  to  Him.  The  cravings  and  as- 
pirings of  the  great  universal  heart  of  suffering  humanity 
plead  for  just  such  a  Jehovah  Jesus  as  is  our  Lord  Christ. 
The  poor  heathen  could  not  live  without  gods,  but  while 
they  made  their  heroes  gods,  they  remained  themselves  as 
base  as  their  vilest  gods.  But  Christianity  reveals  God 
to  us,  and  reveals  His  Son  Jesus  Christ  in  us,  that  we  may 
become  partakers  of  His  nature  and  live  with  Him  forever. 

Since,  then,  such  is  the  precious  import  of  the  Name  of 
Jesus,  ought  we  not  seriously  to  ask  ourselves,  Do  we 
really  *' believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  His  only  Son,  our 
Lord?" 

It  is  not  enough  that  we  have  heard  of  Him,  and  can 
tell  who  is  the  Redeemer  of  God)  s  elect.  It  is  not  enough 
that  we  have  never  formally  renounced  Him.  We  must 
believe  that  Jesus  is  Christ,  and  believe  this  with  the 


PRAYER   rOR    LIGHT.  31 

heart  unto  righteousness.  Bo  you  really  know  the  mean- 
ing of  the  Name,  the  precious  Name  Jesus  ?  If  so,  you 
know  there  is  no  other  name  to  be  compared  with  it. 
As  the  sun  in  the  firmament  darkens  all  the  stars,  so  tlie 
glory  of  Christ's  sufficiency,  as  seen  by  the  eye  of  an 
appropriating  faith,  eclipses  the  lustre  of  all  other 
objects.  As  salvation  is  found  in  Jesus  alone,  what  are 
honors  and  riches  without  Him  ?  If  you  are  a  merchant, 
and  all  your  property  is  on  board  a  ship,  would  you  not 
feel  anxious  about  bringing  it  safely  into  port  ?  How  much 
more  anxious  should  you  be  to  come  to  Jesus  and  lay  up 
your  salvation  in  Him.  It  is  wonderful  how  strongly 
many  of  the  early  Christians  expressed  their  affection  for 
Jesus.  In  the  first  ages  of  the  Church,  Christians  seem 
to  have  had  such  a  believing,  loving  soul— such  strong 
affection  for  the  person  of  Jesus,  that  no  other  creed  or 
profession  was  needed.  It  was  enough  to  know  Jesus. 
Many  of  them,  like  Bernard  in  his  celebrated  Hymn  to 
the  Lord  Jesus,  could  say  :  — 

*'  Most  blessed  Jesus,  dearest  friend, 
Hope  of  my  longing,  panting  mind, 
I  seek  Thee  with  my  tears  and  sighs, 
To  Thee  my  soul  lifts  up  her  cries. 
0  Jesus,  cordial  to  the  heart, 
Who  light  and  life  dost  still  impart, 
A  living  fountain,  full  and  fresh. 
Surpassing  every  joy  and  wish. 
When  on  my  heart  Thoii'rt  pleased  to  shine, 
My  soul  is  cheered  with  truth  divine ; 
All  I  contemn  but  things  above  ; 
My  bosom  glows  with  heavenly  love. 
Jesus,  my  chief  and  lasting  Good, 
My  Saviour,  strength,  and  precious  food, 
Thy  presence  grant.  Thy  glory  show. 
Thy  boundless  love  cause  me  to  know." 

O  everlasting  Truth,  Incarnate  Wisdom  of  the  Father, 
hear  us  when  we  call  upojL-Tiieer-<^J£rostrate  in  spirit  at 
the  footstool  of  Thy  Majesty,  "fe^di^^  Thine  infinite 

j'  ^  'I 


32  PRAYER    FOR    LIGHT. 

perfections,  rendering  all  glory  and  benediction  to  Thee. 
We  come  to  Thee  in  search  of  Thine  Own  Self,  the  Eternal 
Verity,  to  catch  a  ray  from  Thee,  the  light  of  the  world  ; 
to  walk  in  Thee,  who  art  the  Way  ;  to  live  in  Thee,  who 
art  the  Life.  Open  Thou  our  hearts,  to  attend  to  that 
which  Thou  hast  revealed  of  Thyself,  of  Thine  Everlast- 
ing Father,  and  Thy  Blessed  Spirit.  And  as  by  Thine 
Incarnation  new  light  has  come  to  us,  lighten  Thou  our 
eyes,  that  we  may  see  Thee,  and  let  memory,  will,  and 
understanding,  all  bow  down  before  Thee,  that  Thou  may- 
est  be  all  in  all.*    Amen. 

♦  Slightly  altered  from  Bishop  Forbes. 


BELIEVING    01^   THE   NAME   CUEIST.  33 


II 


BELIEVING  ON  THE  NAME  CHRIST. 


"And  Paul,  as  his  manner  was,  went  in  unto  them,  and  three  Sabbath-days 
reasoned  with  them  out  of  the  Scriptures,  opening  and  alleging,  that  Christ  must 
needs  have  suffered,  and  risen  again  from  the  dead ;  and  that  this  Jestjs,  whom 
I  preach  unto  you,  is  Christ."  "  And  testified  to  the  Jews  that  Jesus  was 
Christ"  .  .  .  .  "  showing  by  the  Scriptures  that  Jesus  was  Christ." — Acts  xvii. 
2,  3 :  xviii.  5,  28. 


The  only  authority  we  acknowledge  in  matters  of  faith 
is  the  Word  of  God.  The  authority  of  Creeds  and  Articles 
and  Confessions  of  Faith  is  derived  from  Holy  Scripture 
alone.  And  the  best  guides  for  the  interpretation  of  them 
are,  First,  the  natural,  literal,  grammatical  meaning  of 
their  text. 

Secondly,  a  knowledge  of  the  controversies  prevailing 
at  the  time  these  creeds  and  confessions  were  drawn  up, 
and  which  made  it  necessary  to  have  such  articulated 
formularies  of  faith. 

TJiirdly,  the  doctrines  of  the  primitive  Church  which 
it  was  the  intention  of  these  formularies  to  embody, 
defend,  and  follow. 

Fourthly,  the  writings  and  known  opinions  of  the 
eminent  men  who  drew  up  these  formularies,  or  who 


34:  THE  PROPER  USE  OF  CREEDS. 

adopted  and  defended  them.  We  all  "believe  that  all 
synods,  and  associations,  and  convocations,  and  councils, 
and  assemblies,  and  Popes,  and  Bishops  may  err,  and 
have  erred,  and  that  the  only  infallible  rule  of  Faith  and 
Life  is  the  Word  of  God  given  by  Inspiration.  And  we 
believe  that  the  authority  of  the  Holy  Scripture  for  which 
it  ought  to  be  believed  and  obeyed  dependeth  not  upon 
the  testimony  of  any  man,  or  church,  or  assembly,  but 
wholly  upon  God,  who  is  Truth  itself,  and  the  author 
thereof.  We  receive  the  Bible,  therefore,  as  our  infallible 
Rule,  and  it  alone  and  only,  because  it  is  the  Word  of 
God. 

*'  The  infallible  rule  of  interpretation  of  Scripture,  is  the 
Scripture  itself ;  and  therefore,  when  there  is  a  question 
about  the  true  and  full  sense  of  any  Scripture  (which  is 
not  manifold,  but  one),  it  may  be  searched  and  known 
by  other  places  that  speak  more  clearly. 

'*The  Supreme  Judge,  by  which  all  controversies  of 
religion  are  to  be  determined,  and  all  decrees  of  councils, 
opinions  of  ancient  writers,  doctrines  of  men,  and  private 
spirits,  are  to  be  examined,  and  in  whose  sentence  we  are 
to  rest,  can  be  no  other  but  the  Holy  Spirit  speaking  in 
the  Scripture. 

**The  whole  counsel  of  God,  concerning  all  things 
necessary  for  His  own  glory,  man's  salvation,  faith,  and 
life,  is  either  expressly  set  down  in  Scripture,  or  by  good 
and  necessary  consequence  may  be  deduced  from  Scrip- 
ture :  unto  which  nothing  at  any  time  is  to  be  added, 
whether  by  new  revelations  of  the  Spirit  or  traditions  of 
men." — Conf.  Faith,  chap.  i.  sees.  2,  4,  9,  10. 

It  is  plain,  then,  that  in  using  the  Catechism,  the  Ten 
Commandments,  the  Creed,  and  Articles  of  Faith,  we  do 
not  mean  to  substitute  them  for  the  Word  of  God.     They 


BELIEVING   ON   THE   NAME   CHRIST.  35 

are  only  helps— they  are  nothing  except  they  are  sup- 
ported by  and  are  according  to  the  Holy  Scriptures. 

We  are  told  in  our  text  what  was  Paul's  manner. 
Three  Sabbath-days  he  went  into  the  synagogues,  to  their 
religious  meetings,  where  their  sacred  Scriptures  were 
read  and  explained,  and  prayer  was  made  ;  and  there  he 
oifered  salvation  first  to  the  Jews,  '^  opening  and  alleging 
that  Jesus  is  Christ." 

His  method  seems  to  have  heen  to  prove  to  the  Jews, 
by  collating  their  own  Scriptures — by  citations  from  them, 
firsts  that  the  Messiah  they  were  looking  for  was  to  be  a 
suffering  Messiah,  and  that  it  was  spiritual  blessings, 
and  not  temporal,  they  were  to  receive  from  Him— that 
the  Messiah  promised  was  not  to  be  a  great  hero,  like  Da- 
vid, to  deliver  them  from  the  Roman  yoke,  but  a  suffer- 
ing Prince^  who  was  to  save  them  from  sin.  Then, 
secondly^  he  applied  these  citations  to  Jesus  of  Nazareth, 
and  by  appealing  to  the  well-known  and  admitted  facts 
of  his  life,  he  showed  that  all  their  own  Scriptures  were 
fulfilled  in  him,  and  therefore  "this  Jesus,  whom  I  preach 
unto  you,  is  the  Christ." 

And  as  he  did  at  Thessalonica,  so  also  we  find  him 
doing  at  Corinth,  where  *^  he  reasoned  in  the  synagogues 
every  Sabbath,  and  persuaded  the  Jews  and  the  Greeks, 
and  was  pressed  in  the  spirit,  and  testified  to  the  Jews 
that  Jesus  was  the  Christ.'''^  And  so  did  Apollos  also: 
*'For  he  mightily  convinced  the  Jews,  and  that  publicly, 
showing  by  the  Scriptures  that  Jesus  was  the  Christ." 

1.  Then  these  passages  prove  that  it  was  a  custom  of 
the  Jews  to  allow  liberty  of  speech  in  their  synagogues, 
after  the  reading  of  the  Scripture  lessons,  to  men  of  repu- 
ted learning,  or  such  as  might  be  supposed  able  to  say 
something  for  edification,  although  they  might  not  be 


S6  RIGHT   KIND    OF   PEEACHESTG. 

priests.     So  Jesus  at  Nazareth,  who  was  not  a  Levite, 
and  Paul  and  Apollos  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 

2.  Here  is  proof  that  the  Jews  in  the  days  of  the  Apos- 
tles had,  and  acknowledged  their  Holy  Scriptures  as 
divinely  inspired. 

3.  That  they  belieyed  their  Scriptures  taught  them  to 
expect  a  Messiah. 

4.  That  the  material  facts  in  the  life  of  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth, as  then  publicly  stated  by  the  Apostles  and  early 
disciples,  were  admitted  to  be  true.  In  rejecting  Him  as 
the  Messiah,  they  did  not  deny  the  truth  of  his  personal 
history  as  related  by  his  followers.    We  have  here  proof 

5.  Also  that  expository  preaching  was  the  style  mainly 
adopted  by  our  Lord  and  his  Apostles.  Apollos  was  elo- 
quent and  learned,  and  pre-eminently  '^mighty  in  the 
Scriptures,"  but  he  used  all  his  eloquence  and  knowledge 
of  the  Scriptures  to  convince  the  Jews  that  Jesus  is  the 
Christ.  And  so  Paul  employed  himself  with  all  his 
might  in  opening  up  and  showing  from  the  Old  Testament 
that  Jesus,  whom  he  preached,  was  the  Christ.     Note 

6.  It  is  said,  they  reasoned^  testified^  persuaded.,  con- 
vinced. They  did  not  show  any  edict  from  king  or  em- 
peror. They  had  no  commission  from  Caesar  to  persecute, 
imprison,  or  burn  those  who  would  not  believe.  They  rea- 
soned., testified^  conmnced.,  and  persuaded.,  by  pouring 
light  into  the  mind  ;  by  discoursing  first  from  the  received 
Scriptures,  and  then  by  applying  these  Scriptures  to  the 
facts  of  our  Lord' s  life.  They  reasoned  with  vehemence  of 
spirit  and  earnestness  of  affection,  as  well  as  with  great 
judgment,  and  an  abundant  use  of  learning  and  common 
sense.    They  believed,  and  therefore  they  spoke,  and  they 


BELIEVING    0]N^   THE   NAME   CHRIST.  37 

spoke  as  they  believed,  and  their  words  were  from  their 
hearts.  They  loved  the  souls  of  men,  and  they  were  on  fire 
for  the  glory  of  God.  If  their  sermons  were  printed  in  the 
old  style,  they  would  be  full  of  italics — quotations  from- 
the  Bible.  Their  grand  point  was  to  demonstrate  every- 
where that  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  whom  they  preached,  was 
the  long-expected  Messiah.  They  aimed  to  gain  this 
demonstration  by  producing  the  prophecies  of  the  Old 
Testament,  and  applying  them,  and  comparing  them  with 
what  Jesus  had  done  and  suffered,  and  by  urging  what 
had  taken  place  after  his  death,  in  proof  that  He  was 
what  He  claimed  to  be.  His  resurrection,  ascension,  the 
descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  miracles  wrought  by  the 
Apostles,  and  the  success  of  their  preaching,  they  alleged 
were  proofs  of  his  Messiahship.  It  was  thus  they  sought 
to  convince  the  people  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ.  And  oh, 
if  all  who  have  been  and  are  called  Christ' s  ministers, 
had  only  kept  closely  to  their  commission,  and  preached 
the  Gospel,  and  nothing  but  the  Gospel,  as  Paul  did,  it  is 
our  solemn  conviction  the  whole  world  would  have  been 
converted  to  Christ  long  ago. 

In  the  discourse  last  Sabbath  evening  on  the  Name 
Jesus,  it  was  shown  that  it  was  not  without  a  purpose 
that  the  form  of  words,  believe  on  the  Name  of  His  Son 
Jesus  Christ,  was  used  by  the  Apostle.  1  John  iii.  23. 
The  names  of  the  Son  of  God  are  significant  and  precious. 
The  name  Jesus  being  the  abbreviation  of  Jehovah 
Joshua,  Jehovah  our  Saviour,  or  the  Salvation  of  Jeho- 
vah, was  expressly  given  to  our  Lord  by  the  Angel, 
while  the  other  appellation,  Christ,  expresses  His  func- 
tions. It  is  to  the  second  name,  Christ,  given  to  our 
Lord  in  the  second  Article  of  the  Creed,  that  I  now  invite 
your  prayerful  attention. 

While  the  name  Jesus  occurs  about  seven  hundred 


38  HOW    CHKIST   WAS   ANOINTED. 

times  ill  the  four  Oospels  to  designate  our  Redeemer, 
the  name  Christ,  by  itself,  is  used  about  sixty  times  in 
the  Gospels  and  in  the  Acts,  and  two  hundred  and  forty 
times  in  the  Epistles  and  the  Book  of  Revelation.     The 
name  Jesus  was  our  Lord' s  proper  human  name,  and  the 
name  Christ  expresses  his  official  title.     The  form  Jesus 
Christ  is  found,  I  believe,  but  five  times  in  the  Gospels 
and  one  hundred  and  sixty  times  in  the  Epistles,  and  the 
opposite  collocation,  Christ  Jesus ^  is  not  found  in  the 
Gospels  at  all,  but  occurs  quite  frequently  in  the  Epistles. 
It  was  to  be  expected  that  in  the  course  of  time  the 
proper  human  name  Jesus  would  be  absorbed  in  the 
official  designation — Christ.   And  as  the  Evangelists  give 
us  memoirs  of  our  Lord,  describing  his  human  life — that 
is,  his  life  and  acts  as  He  appeared  in  the  world  as  a  man, 
so  they  generally  call  him  Jesus  ;  and,  as  in  the  Epistles, 
the  object  is  to  show  the  great  work  He  accomplished  by 
his  life  and  death,  so  He  is  generally  designated  by  his 
official  name,  Christ.     Christ  is  His  hypostatical  name, 
indicating  His  two  natures  in  one  person.     He  is  called 
Christ,  says  Cyril,    "not  because  He  was  anointed  by 
human  hands,  but  because  he  was  from  eternity  conse- 
crated by  the  Father  to  be  an  High  Priest  overmen." 
And  not  a  Priest  only,  but  a  Prophet  and  a  King.     *'  He 
anointed  himself  as  God,  anointing  his  l)ody  with  his 
own  Deity,  and  being  anointed  as  man."      And  hence 
we  may  see  why  it  is  said  in  the  Holy  Scriptures  that 
Jesus  was  anointed  with  the  Holy  Ghost ;  namely,  be- 
cause the  work  whereby  the  Son  of  God  became  the 
Son  of  man  is  ascribed  to  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
He  was  conceived  by  the  Holy  Ghost.      His  unction 
(anointing)  was  that  of  the  Deity  on  the  humanity,  as 
some  of  the  ancients  have  expressed  it. 

Our  Lord's  proper  human  name,  then,  is  Jesus,  and 


BELIEVING   Oi^   THE   IsAM^E   CHRIST.  39 

his  official  title  is  Christ,  which  also  expresses  his  person, 
human  and  Divine.  And  the  way  his  double  name  and 
his  title  are  used  throughout  the  New  Testament,  is  a 
proof  both  of  the  intelligence  and  honesty  of  the  sacred 
writers,  and  proves  also  their  faith  in  his  Supreme  Divin- 
ity, as  well  as  in  his  real  humanity.  As  the  name  Christ 
is  his  official  title,  it  should  be  preceded  by  the  definite 
article  in  the  text.  Thus:  " This  Jesus  whom  I  preach 
unto  you  is  the  Christ,"  and  he  "  testified  to  the  Jews 
that  Jesus  was  the  Christ."  That  is,  Paul  proclaimed, 
and  proved  mainly  out  of  their  own  Scriptures,  that  Jesus 
was  the  Messiah  promised  to  their  fathers.  And  so  also 
when  our  Lord  himself  says  :  "  It  is  life  eternal  to  know 
the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  He  has  sent," 
He  means  that  he  was  to  be  received  as  the  Messiah — 
that  they  must  believe  that  He,  Jesus,  was  the  Christ. 
Jesus  the  Christ  is  to  be  taken,  then,  in  the  same  way  that 
we  understand  John  the  Baptist  or  the  Baptizer — that  is, 
Jesus  is  the  Messiah,  who  is  called  Christ  because  he  is 
God' s  Anointed  One  as  PropJiet,  Priest,  and  King.  •  The 
Messiah  is  spoken  of  in  the  Old  Testament  as  The  Anointed, 
especially  by  David  and  Isaiah.  And  Daniel  uses  the 
appellation,  ''the  anointed  One,"  with  express  reference 
to  the  Great  Deliverer,  and  calls  him  the  Prince,  and  the 
High  Priest,  and  the  expiator  of  guilt,  ix.  24,  26.  When 
Jesus  was  born,  the  common  appellations  by  which  the 
Great  Deliverer  of  Israel  was  spoken  of  were  these  two  : 
He  who  is  to  come,  and  the  Messiah  icho  is  called 
Christ. 

To  believe,  then,  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  means : 
First,  that  He  is  the  Deliverer  promised  under  the  name 
of  Messiah,  the  anointed  One,  the  Holy  One  of  God,  in 
the  Old  Testament,  and  that  all  that  is  said  of  this  Deliv- 
erer or  Saviour  in  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  under 


40  JESUS    THE    CHRIST. 

this  or  any  other  name,  is  true  of  Him.  Secondly^  to  be- 
lieve that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  and  that  all  that  is  said  con- 
cerning the  Messiah  of  the  Old  Testament  is  true  of  Him, 
requires  us  to  receive  Him  distinctly  as  fulfilling  the 
offices  of  The  Anointed  One :  namely,  as  our  Prophet, 
Priest,  and  King,  and  that  He  is  supreme  and  absolute  in 
all  these  offices.  He  is  the  divinely  appointed^  qualijied^ 
commissioned^  and  accredited  Saviour  of  sinners.  ''His 
name  shall  be  called  Jesus,  for  He  shall  save  his  people 
from  their  sins."  Every  one,  therefore,  who  understand- 
ingly  and  sincerely  unites  in  saying,  ''And  I  believe  in 
Jesus  Christ,"  confesses  to  the  belief  that  Jesus  is  the 
true  and  only  Messiah,  "the  Redeemer  of  God's  elect." 
This  confession  distinguishes  us  as  Christians  from  Pagans 
and  Mohammedans,  and  from  all  deists  and  atheists. 
And  also  from  the  Jews,  for  I  helieve  in  Jesus  Christ 
means  that  I  believe  the  Messiah  who  was  promised  to 
the  patriarchs  has  come — the  prophecies  are  already  ful- 
filled, and  fulfilled  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  I  therefore 
believe  He  is  the  Messiah.  I  believe  that  a  promise  was 
made  to  our  first  parents,  repeated,  enlarged,  and  renewed 
afterwards  in  many  ways,  but  specially  to  Abraham,  and 
foretold  by  the  prophets,  that  a  Divine  man^  the  God- 
man,  teas  to  come,  who  should  he  the  Messiah,  and  redeem 
his  people  ;  and  I  believe  that  Jesus,  who  was  born  of 
the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary  in  the  days  of  Herod,  is  that 
true  Messiah,  so  long  and  so  often  promised.  And  I  'be- 
lieve not  only  that  He  fulfils  all  the  signification  of  his 
angel-selected  and  announced  name  Jesus,  "  for  He  shall 
save  his  people  from  their  sins,"  but  I  also  believe  that 
Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Messiah,  anointed  to  three  spe- 
cial oflBices,  belonging  to  Him  as  the  Mediator  between 
God  and  man — that  He  executes  his  office  as  "  a  Prophet 
in  revealing  to  us,  by  His  Word  and  Spirit,  the  will  of 
God  for  our  salvation,"  and  the  office  of  a  priest  in  his 


BELIEVING   ON   THE   NA3IE   CHRIST.  41 

once  offering  up  himself  a  sacrifice  to  satisfy  Divine  Jus- 
tice, and  reconcile  us  to  God,  and  in  making  continual 
intercession  for  us  ;  and  ^'  the  office  of  a  king  in  subduing 
us  to  himself,  in  ruling  and  defending  us,  and  in  restrain- 
ing and  conquering  all  his  and  our  enemies  ;"  and  that  as 
my  Prophet,  Priest,  and  King,  He  will  at  last  confer  actual, 
perfect,  and  eternal  happiness  upon  me,  and  all  who  be- 
lieve in  Him.  And  I  believe  all  this,  because  it  is  accord- 
ing to  His  Holy  Word,  and  because  the  unction  by  which 
He  became  and  was  proved  to  be  the  true  Messiah,  was 
not  only  typified  by  the  material  anointing  with  the  holy 
oil,  but  was  according  to  the  fore-ordination  of  the  Fa- 
ther, by  the  Spirit  of  God,  which  He  received  as  the  Head, 
and  conveys  to  all  his  members,  who  are  in  Him  as  the 
branches  are  in  the  vine — Christ  is  their  life.  ''  Who  is 
He  then  that  condemneth  ?  It  is  Christ  that  died,  yea 
rather  that  is  risen  again,  who  is  even  at  the  right  hand 
of  God  ;  who  also  maketh  intercession  for  us."  All  this 
is  the  true  meaning  of  ''  And  I  believe  in  Jesus  Christ." 

I.  What,  then,  is  the  signification  of  the  name  Christ  ? 
As  Jesus  is  the  Greek  for  the  Hebrew  Joshua^  so  Christ 
is  the  Greek  equivalent  for  the  Hebrew  Messiah,  or,  as 
it  is  written  in  the  New  Testament,  Messias.  You  may 
remember  that  the  woman  of  Samaria  said  :  *'  I  know  that 
Messias  cometh  which  is  called  Christ."  And  Andrew 
said  to  his  brother  Simon,  ''  We  have  found  the  Messias, 
which  is,  being  interpreted,  the  Christ."  The  signification 
of  both  names  is  the  same,  namely,  the  anointed.  And 
as  Paul  and  the  most  of  the  Apostles,  if  not  all  of  them, 
used  the  Greek  language  in  writing,  so  they  used  the 
Greek  name  Christ  for  Messiah,  and  the  same  was  retained 
in  the  Latin  language  by  simply  rendering  it  into  Latin 
letters,  Ohristus,  which  is  the  original  of  our  English 
name. 


42,  JESUS    THE    PEOMISED    MESSIAH. 

II.  Why  is  our  Lord  Jesus  the  Anoin^ted  One  ?  The 
answer  to  this  question  carries  us  back  to  the  custom  of 
anointing  as  we  find  it  in  the  law  and  among  the  Patriarchs. 
With  them,  whatever  was  set  apart  to  holy  or  religious 
uses,  or  specific  ofiices,  was  anointed  with  oil,  under  the 
notion  that  such  an  anointing  was  an  ordination  or  official 
setting  apart  to  the  service  of  God.  Thus  Jacob  poured 
oil  on  the  top  of  tlie  pillar.  And  Moses  anointed  the 
tabernacle  and  all  the  vessels,  and  this  anointing  was  their 
dedication.  And  so  the  High  Priest  was  invested  with 
his  office  by  the  use  of  the  holy  anointing  oil.  When 
Jesus  therefore  is  caled  Messiah,  Christ,  the  meaning  is, 
that  He  is  the  Anointed  One,  who  fulfils  all  these  types 
under  the  law.  'Now  it  is  plain  there  was  a  general  expec- 
tation that  such  a  person  as  Christ  was  to  come. 

The  woman  of  Samaria  said:  '^I  know  that  Messias 
Cometh." 

The  Jews  acknowledged  that  our  Lord's  name  was 
Jesus,  but  ''agreed  that  if  any  man  did  confess  that  He 
was  Christ,  he  should  be  put  out  of  the  synagogue. ' '  Jo. 
ix.  22.  ''  And  all  men  mused  in  their  hearts  of  John  the 
Baptist,  whether  he  were  the  Christ,  or  not,"  and  when 
Jesus  taught  in  the  Temple,  those  who  doubted  as  to  his 
character  and  claims  said :  ' '  When  Christ  cometli,  no  man 
knoweth  whence  He  is,"  and  those  who  believed  said, 
"When  Christ  cometh,  will  He  do  more  miracles  than 
these  which  this  man  doeth?"  From  these  passages  it  is 
plain  that  both  parties,  those  who  believed  in  Jesus  and 
those  who  did  not  believe,  agreed  that  a  Messiah  was  to 
come.  And  this  expectation  was  built  on  the  promises 
made  to  the  fathers  ;  and  as  they  understood  the  promises 
and  the  prophecies,  Christ  was  to  be  the  Anointed  One,  and 
the  time  for  his  coming  was  at  hand,  if  not  actually  ful- 
filled.    The  line  of  argument  to  prove  that  Jesics  of  Naza- 


BELIEVING   ON   THE   NAME   CHRIST.  43 

reth  is  Messiah  is  on  this  wise  :  Because  in  Him  all  that  is 
promised  or  foretold  of  the  Messiah,  as  to  descent^  family^ 
place  and  time  of  coming,  is  minutely  fulfilled.  Jesus  was 
born  and  lived  and  died  before  the  Jewish  people  were 
dispersed  or  were  wholly  deprived  of  a  national  polity,  and 
while  the  second  Temple  was  standing,  and  sacrifices  were 
still  continued,  and  the  tribes  and  their  genealogies  were 
still  distinctly  preserved.  The  prophecies  as  to  the  time^ 
place^  and  manner  of  Ms  Mrth  not  only  all  meet  in  Him, 
but  meet  in  no  one  else.  He  is  therefore  the  Christ. 
And  besides,  Jesus  taught  what  the  Messiah  was  to  teach, 
wrought  such  miracles  as  the  Messiah  was  to  work,  and 
suffered  and  accomplished  all  that  the  Messiah  was  to 
suffer  and  obtain.  All  that  John  the  Baptist  foretold  of 
Jesus  he  had  learned  to  expect  of  the  Messiah,  nor  did 
Jesus  fail  to  fulfil  every  thing  he  had  promised  concerning 
Him.  And  His  Apostles  went  everywhere  preaching  and 
proving  out  of  the  Scriptures  that  Jesus  is  Messiah.  In  a 
word,  it  is  proved  that  Jesus  came  into  the  world  at  the 
time  the  Messiah  was  to  come — that  he  was  born  of  the 
very  family,  in  the  very  place,  and  at  the  very  time,  and 
after  the  same  manner,  that  the  prophets  had  foretold  of 
the  Messiah,  and  that  these  predictions  were  never  fulfilled 
in  any  one  Before  His  coming,  nor  have  they  been  fulfilled 
in  any  one  since.  We  conclude,  therefore,  that  Jesus  is  the 
Messiah.  Moreover,  He  taught  the  great  truths,  wrought 
the  very  miracles,  suffered  the  very  indignities,  and  re- 
ceived such  glory,  as  the  prophets  said  the  Messiah  was 
to  teach,  and  which  he  was  to  do  and  suffer  and  receive. 
We  conclude,  therefore,  that  it  is  our  duty  to  believe  that 
Jesus  is  Christ,  the  promised  Messiah. 

III.  How  and  when  did  Jesus  become  the  Messiah, 
Jehovah' s  anointed  One  ? 

It  is  well  known  that  great  use  was  made  in  ancient 


44  ANCIENT   ANOINTINGS. 

times  of  anointings  of  various  kinds,  and  for  many  pur- 
poses. The  general  meaning  of  the  act  was  to  designate^ 
set  apart^  consecrate,  and  qualify.  Thus,  Cyrus  is  called 
God's  anointed,  because  God  had  consecrated  him  to  the 
work  of  releasing  the  Jews  from  their  captivity  in  Babylon. 
And  so  also,  but  in  a  far  higher  sense,  Jesus  is  called 
Jehovah' s  anointed  One  in  the  second  Psalm,  and  in  other 
Scriptures.  And  hence  also  in  the  Bible,  anoint,  anointed, 
and  anointing,  are  employed  in  a  variety  of  forms  to 
illustrate  the  sanctifying  influences  of  divine  grace  upon 
the  soul. 

At  least  three  significant  kinds  of  anointing  are  found 
in  the  Scriptures : 

1.  One  for  health  and  cleanliness,  as  for  sundry  diseases, 
and  under  this  head  we  perhaps  should  class  the  anointing 
of  the  dead  body.  2.  Anointing  of  guests  and  strangers, 
as  when  the  woman  who  was  a  sinner  washed  Jesus'  feet. 
Among  the  Egyptians  this  was  the  ordinary  method  of 
making  a  guest  feel  his  welcome.  3.  The  great  anoint- 
ing, however,  was  for  the  consecration  and  inauguration 
of  a  person  to  some  part  of  divine  service — thus  the 
designating  to  the  service  of  God,  or  to  a  holy  use,  the  ves- 
sels of  the  tabernacle  and  the  priests,  and  subsequently 
kings  and  prophets.  Proof  is  abundant  from  the  monu- 
ments that  this  custom  prevailed  in  Egypt  as  well  as 
among  the  Jews.  It  was  the  usual  way  of  investiture 
into  any  sacred  ofiice  among  the  ancients.  The  appella- 
tion, then,  belongs  to  our  Lord  in  a  pre-eminent  degree. 
First,  He  was  anointed  by  His  Father's  designation — 
being  pre-ordained  to  his  work  ;  secondly.  He  was  anoint- 
ed typically  in  the  Jewish  priests  and  kings  and  proph- 
ets. The  proof  that  they  were  anointed  and  were  types 
of  the  Messiah  is  so  well  known,  that  no  citations  or  illus- 
trations are  needed.    And  as  the  Messiah  unites  the  func- 


BELIEVING   ON   THE   NAME   CHEIST.  46 

tions  of  Prophet,  Priest,  and  King,  so  typically  He  was 
anointed,  and  so  pre-eminently  anointed  as  combining  all 
in  one,  that  his  name  expressed  his  official  title — The 
Anointed  One.  Jesus  was  anointed  typically  to  the 
prophetical  office,  and  to  the  priestly  office  and  the  kingly 
office  in  all  the  prophets,  priests,  and  kings  that  God  gave 
to  his  people  in  their  typical  economy. 

And  thirdly^  Jesus  was  actually  anointed  with  the 
Holy  Spirit.  He  fulfilled  all  righteousness,  was  circum- 
cised, and  was  baptized  with  water.  And  the  Holy  Spirit 
descended  upon  him  at  his  baptism.  Isaiah  had  foretold 
this,  saying  :  ''  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  because 
the  Lord  God  hath  anointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings 
unto  the  meek  ;  He  hath  sent  me  to  bind  up  the  broken- 
hearted, to  proclaim  liberty  to  the  captives,  and  the  open- 
ing of  the  prison  to  them  who  are  bound  ;  to  proclaim  the 
acceptable  year  of  the  Lord,  and  the  day  of  vengeance 
of  our  God ;  to  comfort  all  that  mourn ;  to  appoint  unto 
them  that  mourn  in  Zion,  to  give  unto  them  beauty  for 
ashes,  the  oil  of  joy  for  mourning,  the  garment  of  praise 
for  the  spirit  of  heaviness ;  that  they  might  be  called 
trees  of  righteousness,  the  planting  of  the  Lord,  that  He 
might  be  glorified."  Isaiah  Ixi.  This  prophecy  Jesus 
explained  and  applied  to  himself  in  the  synagogue  of 
Nazareth.  And  St.  Peter  tells  us  that  "God  anointed 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  power." 

As  to  the  question.  When  did  Jesus  become  "The 
Anointed  One  ?"  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  whole 
A7ork  of  Redemption  was  decreed  in  the  Eternal  Mind 
from  all  eternity.  Our  salvation  by  the  work  of  God's 
dear  Son  is  not,  therefore,  any  "  after- thought "  of  the 
Almighty,  by  which  to  "mend"  or  repair  his  works  of 
creation  that  had  been  marred  by  Satan.  In  the  Divine 
Mind,  God's  Son  was  contemplated  as  incarnate  and  cru- 


46  PROPIIET,    PEIEST,    AND    KING. 

cified  from  all  eternity.  The  actual  incarnation  was  when 
the  Word  was  made  flesh — when  the  two  natures,  "the 
Godhead  and  the  manhood,  without  confusion  of  sub- 
stance," were  inseparably  united  in  one  Divine  Person, 
whom  we  know  as  Christ.  The  great  Hooker  says,  Jesus 
"  took  the  very  first  element  of  our  nature,  before  it  was 
come  to  have  any  personal  subsistence,  and  the  flesh  and 
the  conjunction  of  the  flesh  with  God  began  both  at  one 
instant ;  his  making,  and  taking  to  himself  our  flesh  was 
one  act,  so  that  in  Christ  there  is  no  personal  subsistence 
but  one,  and  that  from  everlasting." 

In  the  incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God  his  glory  was 
put  into  the  form  and  habit  of  our  flesh,  so  that  the  Apos- 
tle says,  "  We  beheld  His  glory,  the  glory  as  of  the  only- 
begotten  of  the  Father."  It  was  this  taking  of  manhood 
into  God,  when  the  Word  was  made  flesh,  that  the  Apos- 
tle Paul  speaks  of  as  the  mystery  of  godliness:  "God 
manifest  in  the  flesh."  It  is  quite  enough,  then,  for  our 
purpose  in  this  discussion,  to  say,  first,  that  Jesus  was 
anointed  of  God,  when,  in  the  Divine  purposes,  "He 
was  set  up  from  everlasting."  "He  was  foreordained 
before  the  foundation  of  the  world."  He  was  sent  from 
the  Father.  He  came  from  God,  appointed  to  this  work. 
Secondly,  He  was  anointed  typically  under  the  Old  Tes- 
tament. Thirdly,  He  was  anointed  actually  with  the  Holy 
Ghost.  And  his  anointing  was  accredited  by  his  mira- 
cles, and  by  the  outpouring  of  his  Spirit  in  conversions, 
and  the  building  up  of  his  kingdom. 

For  the  Eedemption  of  sinners  by  the  Messiah  consist- 
ing in  their  deliverance  from  a  state  of  sin  and  death,  and 
in  bringing  them  into  a  state  of  righteousness  and  eternal 
life,  it  was  necessary  that  He  should  offer  a  sacrifice  pro- 
pitiatory, and  hence  it  was  necessary  that  Messiah  should 
be  a  Priest.    And  as  deliverance  from  sin  could  not  be 


BELIEVINO    ON   THE   NAME   CHRIST.  4T 

oMained  without  the  revealing  of  God's  will  to  us  con- 
cerning our  salvation,  so  there  was  a  necessity  that  the 
Messiah  should  be  a  prophet.  And  as  the  salvation  of 
sinners  implies  their  translation  from  a  state  of  darkness 
into  the  light  of  God' s  kingdom— from  the  kingdom  of 
Satan  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and  this  requires  the 
authority  and  power  of  a  king — even  of  the  Son  of  God, 
who  was  manifested  that  He  might  destroy  the  works  of 
the  devil — our  Redeemer  must  therefore  be  a  king. 
And  thus  we  see  that  in  every  particular  Jesus  has  the 
unction^  the  threefold  anointing,  and  is  indeed  the 
Anointed  One,  our  Saviour. 

^'  Jesus  Christ  is  our  anointed  Saviour,  anointed  to  be 
our  King,  our  great  High  Priest,  and  our  Prophet,  and  in 
all  those  our  Saviour  ;  our  Prophet,  to  teach  the  way  of 
salvation  ;  our  Priest,  to  purchase  it  for  us  ;  and  our 
King,  to  lead  and  protect  us  in  the  way  and  bring  us  safe 
to  the  end  of  it.  A  name  full  of  sweetness  and  comfort. 
It  is  a  rich  ointment,  and  in  the  real  and  true  preaching 
of  the  Gospel  it  is  an  ointment  poured  forth,  diffusing  its 
fragrant  smell  for  believing  souls." — LeigMon, 

Finally,  we  should  believe  and  profess  this  article,  1st. 
Because  unless  Jesus  is  Christ  we  have  no  Saviour.  If 
He  is  not  the  Prophet  of  God,  He  could  not  reveal  the 
way  of  salvation  ;  nor  could  He  work  out  salvation  for 
us,  if  He  is  not  a  Priest ;  nor  could  He  confer  salvation 
upon  us,  unless  he  is  a  king.  But  we  have  proved  that 
Jesus  is  the  Messiah  who  was  to  come,  and  that  he  was 
anointed  to  all  the  offices  of  a  Prophet,  Priest,  and 
King.  We  therefore  have  boldness  to  enter  into  the 
holiest  by  the  blood  of  Jesus  ;  and  having  such  a  High 
Priest  over  the  house  of  God,  we  may  draw  near  with  a 
true  heart,  in  full  assurance  of  faith.  Heb.  x.  19. 


48  ouESELVEs  Livma  saceifices. 

2.  We  iniist  profess  this  article,  and  prove  by  our  lives 
that  it  is  true,  or  we  practically  say  Jesus  is  not  the  Mes- 
siah. ''For  whosoever  believeth  that  Jesus  is  Christ, 
is  born  of  God."  And  again  saith  St.  John,  "  Who  is  a 
liar,  but  he  that  denieth  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ  ?  This 
man  is  the  antichrist,  as  denying  the  Father  and  the  Son." 
''He  that  believeth  and  is  baptized  shall  be  saved," 
Whosoever  believeth  shall  be  saved. 

Christ  died  for  us  that  we  should  live  to  Him.  He 
bought  us  with  a  price.  We  are  therefore  not  our  own, 
but  must  glorify  God  in  our  bodies  and  in  our  spirits, 
which  are  God' s. 

3.  This  profession  of  faith  must  be  an  individual, 
personal  one.  '^  I  believe  in  Jesus  Christ."  We  must 
receive  him  as  the  Redeemer  of  God's  elect — as  our 
Prophet,  Priest,  and  King.     It  cannot  be  done  by  proxy. 

Whence  is  our  name  Christians?  Are  we  not  so 
called  after  Christ  ?  Have  we  then  His  spirit  ?  Bo  we 
rejoice  at  this  name  as  the  early  Christians  did  ?  When 
it  was  given  to  them  it  was  a  name  of  reproach,  but  they 
loved  it,  and  they  suflfered  all  manner  of  persecution  and 
death  for  His  sake.  "Let  every  one  then  that nameth  the 
name  of  Christ  depart  from  iniquity."  Christ  was  the 
Anointed  One,  a  Prophet,  a  Priest,  and  a  King.  Are  we, 
like  Him,  consecrated  to  God  ?  Do  we  teach  the  way  of 
salvation,  and  offer  ourselves  a  living  sacrifice  to  God, 
and  labor  and  pray  for  the  coming  of  His  Kingdom  ?  If 
we  are  really  Christians,  then  we  have  an  unction  from 
Him,  for  God  hath  established  and  anointed  us  in  Christ 
to  be  Kings  and  Priests  unto  Him.  What  think  ye  then 
of  Christ  ?  Dost  thou  believe  on  the  Son  of  God  ?  O 
that  every  one  of  you  may  be  able  to  say,  Lord^  I  believe ; 
help  Thou  mine  unbelief.     Amen. 


JESUS   CHRIST   god's   SON   A]ST)    OUE   LORD.  49 


III 


JESUS  CHRIST  GOD'S  SON  AND  OUR  LORD. 


"  But  these  things  are  -written,  that  ye  might  believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ, 
the  Son  of  God ;  and  that  believing  ye  might  have  life  tlirough  his  name." — John 
XX.  31. 


It  is  properly  considered  a  part  of  a  good  education  to 
acquire  the  habit  of  addressing  every  one  by  his  proper 
titles,  giving  honor  to  whom  honor  is  due,  and  reverence 
to  whom  reverence  is  due. 

This  is  clearly  the  teaching  of  the  Bible.  And  St. 
Paul  recognized  it  when  he  said,  in  relation  to  his  reproof 
of  Ananias,  "I  wist  not,  brethren,  that  he  was  the  high 
priest :  for  it  is  written,  Thou  shalt  not  speak  evil  of  the 
ruler  of  thy  people."     Acts  xxiii.  5. 

We  are  ready  to  form  our  estimate  of  a  person's 
bringing  up,  character,  refinement,  and  politeness, 
by  his  tone  of  voice  and  the  style  he  uses  in  address- 
ing his  neighbor.  His  culture  and  acquaintance  with 
good  society  are  at  once  recognized  by  the  grace  with 
whicli  he  makes  his  salutations.  Nor  is  this  incon- 
sistent with  common  sense,  or  in  any  way  forbidden 
by  the  Gospel.  Christianity  is  not  a  crusade  against 
good  manners  ;   nor  is  it  built  upon  the  ruins  of  civiliza- 


50  JESUS    CHRIST   GOD^S    SON   AND    OUR   LORD. 

tion  and  of  the  Fine  Arts.  Ancient  history,  and  tlie  monu- 
ments of  the  early  ages  of  the  Church,  prove  that  no 
man  was  more  honest  and  polite  than  Abraham  the  friend 
of  God,  and  the  Father  of  the  faithful ;  and  no  people 
were  more  considerate  in  showing  marks  of  respect  where 
they  were  due,  and  could  not  be  construed  into,  or  be 
mistaken  for,  marks  of  homage  to  idols,  than  the  primitive 
Christians.  But,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  our  times  are  dis- 
tinguished for  two  grave  errors,  the  prevailing  of  which 
proves  that  our  Christianity,  in  at  least  two  particulars,  is 
not  equal  to  that  of  the  first  ages  of  the  Church,  namely  : 
F'lrst^  We  are  deficient  in  respect  for  aged  persons,  and  we 
do  not  give  honor  where  honor  is  due,  to  our  teachers, 
magistrates,  and  parents.  Irreverence,  and  a  want  of 
obedience  and  humility  before  superiors,  are  prominent 
faults  among  us.  And  the  fruits  of  such  things  in  child- 
hood and  youth  are  nothing  but  evil  to  the  Church  and 
to  society.  And,  secondly^  There  is  in  our  day  a  sad,  a  very 
sad  want  of  reverence  for  the  name  of  God,  and  especially 
for  the  NAME  of  Jesus  Christ.  Tlie  early  Christians  were 
so  full  of  love  for  the  name  and  character  of  Jesus,  that 
they  had  very  little  need  for  any  other  Creed,  or  Confes- 
sion, or  Articles  of  Faith,  than  the  mere  name  of  their  Re- 
deemer. To  be  called  a  Christian  in  honor  of  Christ, 
although  the  name  was  then  one  of  reproach,  and  sub- 
jected them  to  the  severest  persecution,  was  their  highest 
honor  and  greatest  delight.  But  so  much  are  we  given 
to  things  gross,  earthly,  and  temporal — so  great  is  our 
idolatry  for  human  intellect,  and  its  developments  and 
creations,  progress  and  material  achievements,  that  but  few 
seem  to  be  aware  of  the  deadly  heresy  that  is  destroying 
the  life  of  our  Christianity.  Nothing  is  more  clearly 
proven  by  the  present  age  of  the  world,  and  the  present 
state  of  Christendom,  than  this  :  namely,  that  the  advance 
of  the  physical  sciences,  increased  wealth  from  the  wonder- 


THE  DEADLY   HERESY.  51 

ful  aids  of  science  in  using  the  elements,  and  the  products 
of  the  earth,  is  not  true  piety ;  it  is  not  even  morality.  The 
printing-press,  the  public  schools,  the  telegraph  and  rail- 
ways, steamships,  oil-wells,  and  gold-mines,  are  intended 
for  good,  but  they  are  not  the  only  good  ;  they  may  be 
so  used  as  not  to  be  good  at  all.  They  are  not  of  them- 
selves sufficient  to  make  men  decent  and  moral  and 
happy,  much  less  pious. 

The  politeness  and  mental  activity  and  scientific  cul- 
ture of  France  were  never  greater  than  when  she  abol- 
ished Christianity  and  drenched  her  soil  in  blood.  You 
may  depend  upon  it,  mental  culture,  public  education, 
commercial  prosperity,  and  material  wealth,  may  be  very 
far  from  morality  and  true  piety.  However  much  we 
may  insist  on  good  works,  and  admire  every  thing  that  is 
lovely  and  refined,  still  the  amenities  and  elegancies  of 
society  are  not  always  evidences  of  pure  morals,  nor  is 
mere  morality  the  same  thing  as  grace.  We  may  have  even 
the  form  of  godliness,  and  yet  be  without  its  power.  And 
when  we  see  from  the  Holy  Scriptures  on  the  one  hand, 
that  God's  only-begotten  Son  has  a  name  that  is  above 
every  name,  and  excels  all  mankind  in  glory,  and  that 
there  is  nothing  in  the  universe  to  be  compared  to  Him, 
and  that  consequently  we  owe  Him  the  deepest  reverence, 
the  profonndest  homage,  the  most  ardent  love,  and  that 
it  should  be  our  greatest  delight  to  confess  His  name ; 
and  then,  on  the  other  hand,  call  to  mind  the  fact,  that  we 
have  many  schools  of  philosophy  and  theology,  repre- 
senting colleges  and  universities  in  all  parts  of  Christen- 
dom, that  agree  scarcely  in  any  thing  else  except  as  Herod 
and  Pilate  agreed — to  condemn  Jesus  of  Nazareth — either 
by  denying  His  personal  existence,  or  His  divinity,  or 
atonement,  or  the  influence  of  His  Holy  Spirit ;— when  we 
see  that  Strauss,  and  Renau,  and  such  writers,  are  the 


I 


52  JESUS    CHRIST  god's   SON   AND    OUR   LORD. 

most  popular  of  our  day  ;  and  when  we  find  so  little 
reverence  for  the  Son  of  God  in  many  of  the  books  used 
in  our  Christian  families  and  societies,  then  we  are  filled 
with  shame,  and  are  obliged  to  confess  that  our  type  of 
religion  falls  far  below  that  of  the  martyrs,  and  confessors, 
and  covenanters  of  old.  We  seem  to  forget  that  it  is  the 
will  of  God  the  Father  ''that  all  men  should  honor  the 
Son,  even  as  they  honor  the  Father."  "  No  man  can  say 
that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord,  but  by  the  Holy  Ghost."  We 
seem  to  forget  that  ''whosoever  shall  confess  that  Jesus 
is  the  Son  of  God,  God  dwelleth  in  him,  and  he  in  God, 
and  whosoever  denieth  the  Son,  the  same  hath  not  the 
Father."  We  read  that  when  many  disciples  went  back, 
and  walked  no  more  with  Jesus,  He  said  unto  the  twelve : 
"  Will  ye  also  go  away  f '  And  then  Simon  Peter  nobly 
answered,  saying  :  "  Lord,  to  whom  shall  we  go  ?  Thou 
hast  the  words  of  eternal  life.  And  we  believe  and  are 
sure  that  Thou  art  that  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God." 
John  vi.  66-69. 

Here  Peter  declares  that  (1.)  Jesus  is  Christ — tliat 
Christy  meaning  the  Christ  promised  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment as  the  Messiah  to  come,  and  (2.)  that  the  promised 
Messiah  who  is  called  Christ  was  the  ^on  of  God,  and 
therefore  (3.)  he  called  him  Lord.  And  so  in  Mattli. 
xvi.  16,  17,  when  Peter  said,  "Thou  art  the  Christ,  the 
Son  of  the  living  God,"  Jesus  not  only  acknowledged  the 
truth  of  his  profession,  but  added:  "Blessed  art  thou, 
Simon  Bar-jona  :'  for  flesh  and  blood  hath  not  revealed  it 
unto  thee,  but  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven." 

And  as  on  the  Day  of  Pentecost,  so  everywhere  and 
always  the  burden  of  the  preaching  of  the  Apostles  was 
to  prove  that  Jesus  of  JSTazareth  was  the  Christ  the  Son 
of  God,  risen  from  the  dead  and  exalted  to  reign  both  as 
Lord  and  Christ.      So  the  Ethiopian  converted  said : 


J 


CONFESSING   JESUS    AS    CHRIST.  53 

**  See,  here  is  water ;  what  doth  hinder  me  to  be  bap- 
tized?'' And  Philip  said,  '*If  thou  believest  with  all 
thine  heart,  thou  may  est."  And  he  answered  and  said, 
*'  I  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God."  And  so 
Philip  preached  in  Samaria,  and  so  Paul  preached,  from 
his  first  sermon  in  Damascus  to  his  last  one  from  the 
block  on  which  he  was  beheaded  in  Rome,  saying,  Jesus 
is  Christ  the  Son  of  God.     Acts  viii.  35,  37  ;  and  ix.  20. 

It  would  perhaps  surprise  many  of  you  if  you  were 
to  look  out  the  passages  of  Holy  Scripture  that  speak  of 
Jesus  as  Christ  the  Son  of  God,  and  make  faith  in  Him  as 
such  the  only  condition  of  salvation.  You  remember 
that  the  second  article  of  our  Creed  on  which  we  are 
speaking  says  :  "  And  I  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  His  only 
Son,  our  Lord."  We  have  already  spoken  of  the  name 
Jesus,  and  also  of  His  official  title,  Christ.  It  remains 
therefore  for  us  now  to  dwell  on  the  other  two  titles  in 
the  article :  His  only  Son^  our  Lord,  which  declare  His 
relation  to  the  Father  and  His  relation  to  us.     And  here, 

I.  It  is  reasonable,  if  our  holy  religion  be  what  we 
believe  and  say  it  is — a  revelation  from  God,  the  Infinite, 
to  us  His  finite  creatures,  that  there  should  be  mystery 
in  it — and  there  must  be,  until  the  finite  can  comprehend 
the  Infinite,  which  is  clearly  impossible.  Jesus  Christ 
and  the  Holy  Spirit  are  not  known  from  the  works  of 
creation.  All  we  know  of  them  is  from  Revelation.  The 
Doctrine  of  the  Trinity  no  man  can  know  unless  it  is 
revealed,  and  no  mortal  can  fully  comprehend  it  even 
when  it  is  revealed.  A  fact  or  doctrine  may  be  de- 
clared, and  the  manner  or  nature  of  it  still  be  incompre- 
hensible. We  believe  many  things  as  facts  which  we 
cannot  explain.  The  mystery  of  the  Incarnation,  the 
miraculous  birth  of  Jesus,  and  of  his  relation  to  the 
Father  Almighty— a  relation  expressed  by  the  words, 


54  JESUS    CHRIST  god's   SOUf  ANI>    OUR   LORD. 

"  His  Son,"  "  His  only  Son"— '^  His  only-begotten  Son" 
— *'His  eternal  Son,"  I  believe,  because  I  find  it 
declared  in  Revelation,  and  I  believe  it  on  the  simple 
direct  authority  of  God  Himself,  which  is  to  me  the 
highest  possible  authority,  and  to  believe  which  I  con- 
sider the  highest  act  of  reason  and  common  sense  ;  but, 
at  the  same  time,  I  candidly  and  boldly  confess  I  do  not 
comprehend  this  doctrine.  And  although  I  do  not  know 
that  I  have  a  correct  understanding  at  all  of  what  is 
meant  when  I  say,  I  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son 
of  God^  His  only-begotten  and  eternal  Son,  still  I  do 
honestly  and  firmly  believe  it,  and  I  have  good  and 
sufficient  grounds  to  believe  it,  for  Jesus  Christ  Himself 
so  says  of  Himself.  He  declared  that  He  was  the  Son  of 
God,  therefore  I  believe  He  is.  The  Father  himself  pro- 
claimed by  a  voice  from  Heaven  that  Jesus  was  His  Son, 
and  the  Holy  Spirit  proved  that  Jesus  was  the  Son  of 
God,  as  the  voice  from  Heaven  proclaimed  Him  to  be, 
by  descending  upon  Him.  I  see  no  way  to  escape  from 
the  necessity  of  believing  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son  of 
God,  but  by  rejecting  the  authority  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, for  certainly  they  do  represent  it  to  be  the  sum  of 
our  Confession  of  Faith  in  relation  to  Jesus  Christ,  to 
believe  and  profess  that  He  is  the  Son  of  God.  And  this 
is  precisely  what  our  opponents  have  done  and  are  doing 
directly  and  indirectly  ;  namely,  rejecting,  undermining, 
weakening,  or  overthrowing  the  authority  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures. 

I  candidly  confess,  I  do  not  understand  the  use  of  many 
words  found  in  our  theological  literature.  Some  terms 
and  phrases  are  used  I  could  wish  altogether  omitted. 
Nor  do  I  think  it  wise  and  best  for  us  to  indulge  our 
curiosity  in  speculations  on  the  miraculous  conception  of 
Jesus.     The  history  of  the  Church  is  full  of  the  proceed- 


WHAT   THE    GOSPEL    EEQUIEES.  55 

ings  of  councils  and  of  the  writings  of  learned  men,  en- 
deavoring to  explain  the  miraculous  birth  of  Jesus  and  his 
Divinity,  but  all  is  of  very  little  use.  I  understand  that 
the  Gospel  requires  me  to  believe  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is 
the  Christy  the  Son  of  God,  and  that  he  is  God,  and  I  believe 
just  what  the  Holy  Scriptures  teach.  And  by  the  terms, 
/S(9?^,  His  only  Soii^  hegotten^  and  only -begotten,  I  under- 
stand that  Jesus  the  Christ  came  from  God  the  Father,  as  a 
Mediator — that  the  term  Son  denotes  proceeding  from  the 
Father,  sent  by  the  Father,  and  yet  equality  with  the 
Father,  both  as  to  Nature  and  the  Degree  of  it.  Ac- 
cording to  the  Scriptures,  the  term  father  is  applied  to 
God  expressing  personal  agency,  intellect,  devising,  lov- 
ing, and  sending  his  Son  ;  while  the  term  Son  denotes 
coming  in  obedience  to  the  will  of  God,  and  is  used  in 
reference  especially  to  his  milking  known  to  us  the  will 
of  God,  revealing  the  knowledge  of  God  to  us  for  our 
salvation.  And  for  this  reason  He  is  called  The  Word, 
as  words,  language,  and  speech  are  the  means  of  commu- 
nicating ideas  to  and  among  men.  And  so  also  named 
Jesus,  for  He  shall  save  his  people,  and  Christ  with  refer- 
ence to  his  official  titles  as  Mediator,  the  Anointed  One, 
prophet,  priest,  and  king.  And  the  Holy  Spirit  makes  us 
holy  by  applying  to  us  the  merits  of  Christ — the  benefits 
purchased  for  us  by  his  death  :  namely,  enlightening  us 
in  the  knowledge  of  Christ,  renewing  our  hearts,  and 
working  in  us  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit,  Avhich  are  love,  joy, 
peace,  and  charity — making  intercession  in  us,  and  pre- 
paring us  for  the  inheritance  of  the  saints  in  light — 
dwelling  in  us,  that  we  may  be  meet  to  dwell  with  God. 
This  is  the  reason  the  term  holy  is  made  a  prominent  pre- 
fix to  the  third  person  of  the  Trinity. 

II.  The  texts  just  cited,  and  they  are  only  a  specimen 
of  many  more  of  a  like  nature,  prove  that  Jesus  Christ 


56  JESUS    CHRIST   god's    SON   AND    OUR   LORD. 

is  THE  Son  of  God  in  a  sense  higher  than  any  creature. 
Angels  are  sons  of  God,  but  Jesus  Christ  is  more  excel- 
lent, not  only  as  to  the  degree,  but  also  in  the  kind  of  his 
nature,  than  they.  When  our  Lord  told  the  Jews  that  He 
was  the  Son  of  God,  they  inferred  that  He  made  himself 
equal  with  God.  And  if  this  inference  was  not  correct, 
surely  He  would  have  protested,  and  told  them  that  they 
were  doing  him  injustice — ^that  it  was  a  calumny  to 
charge  him  with  claiming  to  be  equal  with  God,  when  He 
had  not  done  so.  If  He  were  a  mere  man,  or  creature, 
however  high.  He  would  certainly  have  vindicated  him- 
self from  the  charge  of  blasphemy  in  claiming  to  be  the 
Son  of  God,  and  therefore  equal  with  God.  As  our  Lord 
allowed  them  to  put  this  interpretation  on  his  words,  it 
must  have  been  correct.  That  was  what  he  meant.  John 
V.  18.  He  did  not  seek  his  own  glory,  but  the  glory  of 
the  Father  who  sent  him,  and  as  the  Father  was  to  be 
honored  in  His  Son,  He  taught  them,  in  claiming  to  be  the 
Son  of  God,  that  He  possessed  the  same  nature,  essence, 
power,  and  dignity  that  belonged  to  the  Father.  ^'  The 
Name  of  God  is  in  him."  The  same  titles,  attributes, 
works,  and  worship  that  are  proper  for  the  Father  are, 
according  to  the  Scriptures,  to  be  given  to  the  Son.  "He 
is  the  brightness  of  the  Father's  glory  and  the  express 
image  of  his  person."  He  is  the  light  of  Light,  and  t]ie 
life  of  the  world.  "  We  beheld  his  glory,  the  glory  as  of 
the  only-begotten  of  the  Father."  "Christ  Jesus,  being 
in  the  form  of  God,  thought  it  not  robbery  to  be  equal 
with  God.  ^  *  Wherefore  God  hath  exalted  him  *  *  that 
every  tongue  should  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord,  to 
the  glory  of  God  the  Father."     Phil.  ii.  5-11,  inclusive. 

III.  The  relation  of  Jesus  Christ  to  God  the  Father 
denoted  by  the  words.  His  only  Son,  not  only  gives  him 
pre-eminence  over  all  creatures,  but  equality  with,  iden- 


JESUS    EQUAL   TO   GOD.  57 

tity  as  God  Jehovah  himself.  Jesus  Christ  is  not  only 
superior  to  all  creatures,  but  is  in  all  respects  like  and 
equal  to  God,  and  one  with  Him.  *' There  is  but  one 
only  living  and  true  God  ;  but  in  the  unity  of  the  God- 
head there  be  three  persons,  of  one  substance,  power, 
and  eternity  :  God  the  Father,  God  the  Son,  and  God  the 
Holy  Ghost." — Conf.  Faith^  chap.  ii.  **  And  these  three 
are  one  God,  the  same  in  substance,  equal  in  power  and 
glory."  See  also  I.  and  II.  of  the  XXXIX.  Articles,  and 
Conf.  Faitli^  chap.  viii.  The  same  point  is  made  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  The  great  proposition  of  that 
epistle,  according  to  Schoetgen,  is  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
is  God^  and  one  of  the  arguments  is  that  He  is  superior 
to  angels,  and  therefore,  as  according  to  old  Hebrew  the- 
ology, whoever  was  superior  to  the  angels  was  God,  for 
they  believed  angels  were  so  near  to  God,  that  there 
could  be  no  higher  creature.  As  Jesus  was  higher  than 
the  angels,  who  were  the  highest  creatures,  He  was  God. 

lY.  In  professing  our  belief  in  Jesus  Christ,  God's 
only  Son,  we  say  also  that  He  is  our  Lord. 

The  Names  God  and  Lord  both  signify  the  Divine 
Nature  without  distinction  of  persons^  but  the  words 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost  indicate  a  separate  person- 
ality. This  is  according  to  Theodoret,  and  seems  to  us 
to  be  well  expressed.  It  is  well  understood  that  among 
the  Jews  the  word  Lord  was  used  for  God.  They  held 
the  name  Jehovah  in  such  reverence,  that  instead  of  pro- 
nouncing it,  they  used  the  equivalent  term  Adonai,  Lord. 
**  So  the  Father  is  Lord,  the  Son  is  Lord,  and  the  Holy 
Ghost  is  Lord.  And  yet  there  are  not  three  Lords,  but 
one  Lord."*    We  are  not  baptized  into  three  names, 


'Bishop  Forbes,  Niccne  Creed,  pp.  115-117. 


I 


58  ,  JESU3    CHRIST   GOd's    SON   AND    OUR   LORD. 

but  in  one  Name.  ^'Baptizing  tliem  in  the  name  of 
the  Father  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost." 
One  JVame,  One  God,  hut  three  persons.  Gregory  Nazi- 
anzen  says:  *' Define  oar  pious  faith,  teaching  that  we 
acknowledge  one  unbegotten  God,  that  is  the  Father,  and 
one  begotten  Son,  that  is  the  Son,  who  indeed  is  called 
God  when  He  is  spoken  of  by  Himself,  but  who  is  termed 
Lord  when  He  is  mentioned  with  the  Father.  The  first 
term  is  given  to  Him  on  account  of  His  Nature,  the  latter 
on  account  of  there  being  one  principle  in  the  Deity 
[/xovapxcay^  Examples  could  be  given  also  from  the  Scrip- 
tures of  the  term  Lord  being  applied  to  the  third  person 
as  well  as  to  the  second  person  in  the  Trinity.  1  Cor. 
viii.  6  ;  xii.  3.  We  are  not,  then,  without  Apostolic 
authority  to  apply  the  term  Lord  pre-eminently  to  Jesus. 
This  term  is  generally  attributed  to  the  second  person  of 
the  Trinity.  And  for  this  and  in  so  doing  we  have  strong 
historic  testimony  for  our  faith  to  rest  upon.  The  term  is 
given  to  Jesus  by  the  Apostles,  who  were  Jews,  and  were 
accustomed  to  use  that  term  as  convertible  with  the  term 
God,  and  as  the  equivalent  of  Jehovah.  It  is  applied  in 
the  Apostles'  Creed  to  Jesus,  and  so  also  in  the  Nicene- 
Constantinople  Creed.  And  thus  we  have  historic  annals 
bringing  to  us  from  the  very  days  of  the  Apostles  them- 
selves the  proof  that  there  was  such  a  person  as  Jesus  of 
Nazareth,  who  claimed  to  be  the  Son  of  God,  and  called 
himself  Lord,  and  was  received  and  believed  in  as  such 
then,  and  has  been  ever  since  to  our  day.  Whatever  we 
may  claim  for  the  supernatural  in  our  holy  religion,  it 
starts  with  historical  facts,  and  we  cannot  know  what  it 
is  until  we  believe  them.  It  is  not  in  any  wise  derogatory 
to  the  divinity  of  our  faith  that  it  receives  aid  from  the 
facts  of  history,  just  as  any  other  system  does. 

Our  theologians  attempt  to  make  the  clause  of  the 


I 


JESUS    IS    OUR   LORD.  59 

Creed  under  consideration  emphatic  by  telling  us  that 
Jesus  is  OUR  Lord  essentially^  because  He  is  God, 
and  mcariously  because,  according  to  the  designation 
of  the  Father,  He  became  incarnate,  and  to  Him  as  such  - 
was  given  all  power  in  heaven  and  earth,  and  all  things 
were  put  under  His  feet,  and  He  was  exalted  as  Head  over 
all  things  to  the  Church.  It  is  in  proof  quite  sufficient 
for  us,  then,  that  He  is  our  Lord : — Firsts  That  He  called 
himself  Lord.  His  disciples  called  him  Lord — the  ' '  Lord 
from  Heaven" — "My  Lord  and  my  God."  And  every 
tongue  is  bound  to  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord,  to 
the  glory  of  God  the  Father.  Secondly^  The  old  versions, 
the  Fathers,  and  ecclesiastical  historians  from  the  earliest 
ages  gave  the  name  Lord  to  Christ.  Thirdly^  The  name 
Jesus,  it  has  been  shown,  is  the  abbreviation  of  the  two 
Hebrew  words  Jehovah  Joshua,  meaning  Jehovah  Sa- 
viour, or  Salvation.  He  then  is  our  Lord.  Fourthly^ 
Jesus  is  assuredly  both  Lord  and  Christ,  because 
as  God' s  Son  He  was  designated^  appointed,  sent  forth, 
qualified,  and  accredited  as  His  Anointed  One,  to  execute 
the  threefold  offices  of  a  Prophet,  Priest,  and  King.  It 
is  only  in  this  view,  I  can  understand  the  Scriptures  that 
speak  of  the  Father' s  eternal  Decree,  and  of  believers  as 
the  Father's  gift  to  his  Son,  and  of  the  Son's  purchase 
of  them  with  a  price,  and  of  the  Son's  actual  dominion 
over  them,  possession  of  them,  and  reigning  in  them — 
as  by  His  effectual  calling,  and  delivering  them  from 
this  present  evil  world,  bringing  them  to  himself  and 
purifying  them  as  a  peculiar  people.  And  hence,  David 
before  his  Incarnation  called  him  Lord  (See  Acts  ii.  35, 
6),  and  his  Apostles  and  disciples  and  followers  ever 
since  have  called  him  Lord,  and  every  creature  at  the 
final  judgment  ^vAforexer  afterwards  shall  acknowledge 
that  of  truth  He  is  Lord,  to  the  glory  of  God  the 
Father,  _    _ 


60  JESUS    CHEIST   god's   SON   AND    OUR   LORT). 

My  dear  brethren,  no  presentation  of  Jesus  Christ  as 
the  only-begotten  Son  of  God  can  suffice,  unless  we  con- 
template his  relation  to  us  as  the  Son  of  God,  as  well  as 
his  relation  to  the  Father.  It  is  only  then  that  the  sove- 
reign love  of  God  the  Father  presents  itself  to  our  view. 
It  was  when  we  were  enemies,  God  loved  us  and  gave 
His  Son  for  us.  We  who  are  by  nature  the  children  of 
wrath,  and  of  disobedience,  and  of  our  Father  the  Devil, 
are  exalted  through  him  to  be  the  sons  of  God.  He  gave 
his  only-begotten  and  well-beloved  Son  to  die  on  the  cross, 
that  we  may  be  conformed  to  his  image,  that  He  might  be 
the  flrst-born  among  many  hretJiren.  So  amazing  is  his 
grace  that  the  Lord  Jesus  is  not  ashamed  to  call  us  brethren. 
How  amazing,  how  astonishing,  that  He  who,  being  in  the 
form  of  God,  and  who  thought  it  not  robbery  to  be  equal 
with  God,  made  himself  of  no  reputation,  but  took  apon 
him  the  form  of  a  servant — in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh — 
God  manifest  in  the  flesh — and  that  He  hath  exalted  us  at 
the  same  time  to  the  greatest  height  of  dignity  of  which 
we  are  capable,  by  giving  us  the  glory  which  the  Father 
gave  Him,  and  by  making  us  partakers  of  the  Divine 
nature.  Brethren,  God's  dear  Son  has  neither  sold  his 
birthright  as  Esau  did,  nor  forfeited  it  like  Reuben,  nor 
lost  his  kingdom  like  Saul,  by  disobedience.  Nor  has 
he  resigned  His  offices  as  The  Anointed  One.  He  exe- 
cutes them  to-day,  and  as  our  High  Priest,  Prophet,  and 
King  reigns  to  make  us  joint  heirs  with  Him  in  his  glory. 

V.  Why,  then,  do  we  insist  on  professing  our  faith  in 
this  Article  of  our  Creed  ? 

I.  We  should  believe  all  this  Article  of  our  Faith,  not 
only  because  it  contains  the  doctrine  which,  according  to 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  is  unto  salvation,  but  also  because  it 
is  the  articulated  voice  of  the  pious  in  all  ages.    It  is  the 


THE  VOICE  OF  ALL  AGES.  61 

voice  of  the  Church  coining  down  to  us  from  Eden.  It 
is  the  voice  of  Abel,  of  Enoch,  of  Noah,  Abraham,  and 
Moses.  It  is  the  voice  of  the  prophets  and  of  the  Apos- 
tles, and  of  the  Church  in  all  ages,  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ, 
the  Son  of  God,  and  our  Lord.  It  is  the  united  voice  of 
all  Christendom,  Roman,  Greek,  Anglican,  and  American 
— of  all  the  house  of  Israel  on  earth  or  in  heaven,  that 
God  hath  made  that  same  Jesus  who  was  crucified,  both 
Lord  and  Christ.  It  is  pleasant  and  full  of  comfort  to 
think  that  the  Church  in  heaven  and  on  earth  agree  in 
this  Article,  to  think  how  many  millions  have  professed 
their  faith  saying.  And  I  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  His  only 
Son  our  Lord,  and  are  now  in  the  New  Jerusalem. 

II.  We  must  profess  this  Article,  in  order  to  our  re- 
nouncing the  jurisdiction^  reign,  and  dominion  of 
Chris fs  enemy,  Satan,  whose  works  He  came  expressly 
to  destroy.  It  is  not  merely  in  the  pious  romances  and 
legends  of  the  Church,  but  it  is  a  blessed  reality,  that  the 
Name  Jesus  has  power  over  Satan  and  all  his  legions. 
Satan  is  the  prince  of  the  power  of  the  air.  He  rules  in 
the  children  of  disobedience.  He  is  the  god  of  this 
world.  His  subjects  are  the  slaves  of  sin  and  the  flesh. 
To  belong  to  Christ,  then,  we  must  renounce  the  world, 
the  flesh,  and  the  devil.  There  are  but  two  kingdoms — 
the  kingdom  of  God,  and  the  kingdom  of  the  devil. 
There  are  but  two  masters,  nor  can  we  serve  them  both 
at  the  same  time.  We  must  make  a  choice.  Whoever 
belongs  to  Christ  does  not  belong  to  Satan.  He  is  rescued 
from  his  tyranny.  He  is  translated  from  his  kingdom. 
He  is  delivered  from  this  present  evil  world.  lie  has 
learned  that  the  friendship  of  this  world  is  enmity  with 
God.  He  is  dead  to  sin,  through  the  death  of  Christ. 
It  is  not,  then,  as  a  mere  empty  or  unmeaning  form  of 
words,  that  in  baptism,  or  confirmation  of  your  baptismal 


I 


62  JESUS    CHEIST   god's   SON   AND    OUE   LOED. 

VOWS,  when  you  publicly  professed  your  faith  in  Jesus, 
that  you  renounce  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil.  I  find 
in  Witslus^  a  copy  of  a  pathetic  address  delivered  by  a 
pastor  in  the  earlier  days  of  Christianity  to  young  persons 
at  baptism,  an  abstract  of  which  seems  to  me  worth  read- 
ing to  you.  It  shows  the  earnestness  of  the  pions  servant  of 
Christ,  and  illustrates  the  custom  of  our  own  days.  ' '  You 
intend,"  said  he  to  the  young  persons  presenting  them- 
selves to  be  baptized,  ''  you  intend  this  day  to  show  the 
hand-writing  of  your  faith  to  Christ.  Your  conscience 
will  be  the  pen,  ink,  and  paper  ;  your  tongue,  the  form. 
Attend,  then,  to  the  manner  in  which  you  subscribe  this 
profession.  Men  that  are  about  to  die  make  a  testament, 
and  appoint  another  to  inherit  their  possessions.  To- 
morrow night  you,  too,  are  going  to  die  to  sin  ;  and  now 
your  renunciation  is  a  testament ;  you  make  the  devil  the 
heir  of  your  sins,  and  you  leave  them  to  him  as  an  inher- 
itance. If  any  of  you,  then,  retains  in  his  mind  any 
thing  which  belongs  to  the  devil,  let  him  renounce  it  as 
one  that  is  about  to  die,  who  is  no  longer  master  of  his 
own  possessions.  Let  none  amongst  you,  therefore,  re- 
tain in  his  heart  any  thing  that  pertains  to  the  devil. 
Cast  in  the  devil's  face  all  the  remainders  of  filthiness  and 
wickedness,  and  be  joined  to  Christ.  The  whole  trans- 
action in  which  you  are  now  engaged  is  awful  and  tre- 
mendous. All  the  powers  of  heaven  are  present  in  this 
place  ;  the  angels  and  archangels,  though  invisible,  are 
recording  your  words ;  the  cherubim  and  seraphim  are 
bending  from  heaven  to  receive  your  engagements  and 
present  them  to  the  Lord,  that  the  angels  may  all  rejoice 
over  the  penitent."  It  is  well  to  note  the  solemn,  devout, 
and  pious  manner  in  which  it  was  usual  in  ancient  times 


*  Witsius  on  the  Creed,  1  vol.  p.  361. 


COVENANTING   WITH    CHEIST.  63 

for  persons  on  becoming  communicants  to  renounce 
Satan  and  all  his  works,  and  all  his  service,  and  all  his 
angels,  and  all  his  pomp,  and  to  join  themselves  to  the 
Lord  Christ,  and  to  his  service  forever. 

III.  We  must,  then,  believe  this  Article,  and  acknow- 
ledge our  belief  of  it,  in  order  that  we  may  truly  and 
really  become  the  subjects  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

How  can  we  acknowledge  that  we  are  His,  and  not 
our  own,  except  by  receiving  Him  as  He  is  offered  to  us  ? 
Ahel  confessed  Him  when  by  faith  he  offered  a  more  ex- 
cellent sacrifice  than  Cain.  Moses  did  the  same  when  he 
preferred  the  reproaches  of  Christ  to  the  glory  of  Egypt. 
And  so  Daniel  confessed  his  faith  in  Christ  in  Babylon. 
He  is  thy  Lord^  saith  the  Psalmist,  and  worship  thoiM 
him. 

ly.  Do  we  really  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  His  only 
Son,  our  Lord^  then  we  must  ohey  Him  as  our  Sovereign. 
If  we  profess  to  call  Him  Lord,  and  yet  do  not  obey  His 
precepts,  then  our  profession  is  false  and  hypocritical. 
*'  Why  call  ye  me.  Lord,  Lord,  and  do  not  the  things 
which  I  say  V  '^  If  ye  love  me,  ye  will  keep  my  com- 
mandments." 

If  a  centurion's  authority  over  his  soldiers  and  ser- 
vants is  such  that  he  secures  prompt  obedience,  saying  to 
one  go,  and  he  goeth,  and  to  another  come,  and  he 
cometh  ;  how  much  more  supreme  is  the  authority  of 
Him  who  reigns  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Almighty,  both 
as  Lord  and  Christ?  I  have  often  wondered  at  and 
admired  the  address  of  Socrates  to  God,  saying,  ''  What- 
ever place  or  rank  thou  mayest  assign  me,  I  would  die  a 
thousand  deaths  rather  than  abandon  it."  (Arrian.  lib. 
iii.  cap.  24.)    And  so  said  Epictetus :  "  The  life  of  every 


I 


64         JESUS  cimisT  god's  son  and  ouk  loed. 

man  is  a  military  service, — Ibotli  long  and  diversified. 
Thou  must  act  the  part  of  a  soldier,  and  perform  without 
reserve  whatever  thy  supreme  commander  may  require, 
even  anticipating,  if  possible,  his  will."  It  is  even  sup- 
posed by  some  of  our  great  scholars  that  our  name  Sacj^a- 
ment^  for  the  Lord' s  Supper,  is  borrowed  from  the  oath 
of  a  soldier  to  his  general — Sacramentum — by  which  he 
bound  himself  to  follow  his  general' s  standard  and  obey 
his  orders.  Do  you  not  remember  David' s  heroes  ?  They 
heard  the  king  express  a  wish  that  some  one  would  give 
him  water  to  drink  from  the  well  of  Bethlehem,  which  was 
before  the  gate,  and  immediately  they  broke  through  the 
warrior  host  of  the  Philistines,  and  drew  water  out  of 
that  well,  and  brought  it  to  David.  Oh,  is  there  any  one 
of  us  willing  to  do  so  arduous,  so  perilous,  so  glorious 
a  service  to  please  God  ?  Can  we  say  of  the  trials  and 
sorrows  and  labors  of  this  life,  as  Paul  did — "JSTone  of 
these  things  move  me,  neither  count  I  my  life  dear  to  my- 
self, so  that  I  might  finish  my  course  with  joy,  and  the 
ministry  which  I  have  received  of  the  Lord  Jesus." 
Acts  XX.  24.     [See  these  quotations  in  Witsius.] 

Y.  Do  we  really  believe  in  Jesus  Christ  His  only  Son, 
our  Lord  f  Then  we  cheerfully  submit  to  be  disposed 
of  by  Him  as  our  true  and  only  Sovereign.  If  He  is  our 
Lord,  then  we  are  his  property,  and  there  is  no  one  to 
hinder  Him  from  doing  what  He  will  with  his  own. 
''Nay,  but,  O  man,  who  art  thou  that  repliest  against 
God  ?  Shall  the  thing  formed  say  to  him  that  formed  it. 
Why  hast  thou  made  me  thus?  Hath  not  the  potter 
power  over  the  clay?"  Strive  to  remember,  dear  breth- 
ren, in  your  heavy  losses  and  bereavements  and  afflic- 
tions, the  noble  examples  of  cheerful  submission  set  us  by 
Aaron  and  Moses,  Eli  and  David.  Besides,  it  is  not  only 
wicked,  but  it  is  in  vain  to  contend  with  the  Providence 


WE   ARE    god's   PEOPEETT.  65 

of  the  Almighty.  It  is  wicked^  for  to  set  up  our  judg- 
ment in  opposition  to  God' s,  is  to  asperse  his  government, 
and  say  we  know  better  than  He  does,  or  we  are  better 
than  He  is.  It  is  wicked  and  vain.  "Let  the  potsherd 
strive  with  the  potsherds  of  the  earth  ;  woe  unto  him  that 
striveth  with  his  Maker." 

And  Job  says,  "I  know  that  Thou  canst  do  every  thing, 
that  no  thought  can  be  withholden  from  Thee.  Nothing 
is  too  hard  for  Thee."  Although,  then,  you  fret  and  vex 
your  soul,  yet  you  cannot  change  or  control  the  ways 
of  Providence  ;  but  by  submitting,  acquiescing,  you  can 
make  them  all  subservient  to  your  happiness.  Even  the 
heathen  teach  us,  as  I  have  just  said,  that  it  is  the  part  of 
every  good  man  to  receive  the  will  of  the  gods  as  best, 
and  to  follow  their  appointment  without  murmuring. 
Very  few  Christian  poets  have  surpassed  the  following 
lines  from  Cleanthes^  which  I  copy  from  Witsius  : 

"Father  of  alll  Great  Ruler  of  the  skyl 
Thy  power  I  own,  thy  wisdom  still  descry. 
Whate'er  the  paths  through  which  thou'rt  pleased  to  lead, 
With  joy  I  follow,  and  obey  with  speed. 
Were  I  to  fret,  and  act  a  wayward  part. 
Follow  I  must,  though  with  an  aching  heart. 
Fate  leads  the  willing,  drags  the  unwilling  soul ; 
Tranquil,  the  good ;  tho  bad,  compelled  to  howL" 

Epictetus,  the  philosopher,  furnishes  us  also  with  a 
beautiful  paragraph  on  this  point : 

"  I  have  surrendered  my  inclination  to  God.  Is  it  His 
will  that  I  should  be  sick  of  a  fever  ?  Then  it  is  my  will 
also.  Is  it  His  will  I  should  give  my  attention  to  any  thing  ? 
It  is  my  will  too.  Is  it  His  will  I  should  earnestly  desire 
any  thing?  Then  I  do  earnestly  desire  it.  Is  it  His  will 
I  should  obtain  the  possession  of  any  thing  ?    Then  I  am 

5 


66         JESUS  CHRIST  god's  sot^  akd  oue  lord. 

so  inclined.     Is  it  His  will  that  I  should  not  obtain  it  1 
Neither  is  it  mine." 

Surely  it  is  enough  to  say  with  Seneca,  ''A  man  should 
be  pleased  with  whatever  pleases  God."  "To  a  good 
man  there  is  nothing  evil,  either  living  or  dying.  What 
then  shall  I  think  when  God  does  not  afford  me  the  means 
of  subsistence,  or  the  power  to  live  ?  What  else,  but 
that  as  a  good  commander  he  sounds  a  retreat  for  me  ? 
I  submit,  I  follow,  commending  my  Leader,  and  praising 
his  works.  I  came  into  the  world  when  it  seemed  good  to 
him,  and  now  I  retire  when  He  pleases  ;  and  while  I  lived, 
this  was  my  employment,  to  praise  Him  alone  or  with 
many,  rendering  thanks  to  God  for  all  things,  blaming 
nothing  whatever  that  is  done  by  Him." 

Have  we  received  Christ  as  our  Lord  ?  Are  we  happy 
in  the  thought  that  He  is  supreme,  commanding  and  dis- 
posing of  all  things  ?  Can  we  say  cheerfully  with  our 
Hymn — 


"  He  that  formed  me  in  the  womb, 
He  shall  guide  me  to  the  tomb ; 
All  my  times  shall  ever  be 
Ordered  by  his  wise  decree. 
Times  of  illness,  times  of  health, 
Times  of  penury  and  wealth, 
Times  of  trial  and  of  grief, 
Times  of  triumph  and  relief, 
Times  the  tempter's  power  to  prove, 
Times  to  taste  a  Saviour's  love ; 
All  must  come,  and  last,  and  end 
As  shall  please  my  Heavenly  Friend. 
Thee  at  all  times  will  I  bless ; 
Having  thee,  I  all  possess ; 
How  can  I  bereaved  be. 
Since  I  cannot  part  with  thee  ?" 


THE   BLESSED    USE    OF   TPwIALS.  67 

And  are  we  striving  to  be  conformed  to  His  will,  who 
said:  ''Not  my  will,  but  thine  be  done,"  that  we  may 
know  the  power  of  his  resurrection  and  be  conformed  to 
his  death  1  Then  we  have  the  blessed  hope  that  we  shall 
be  raised  in  the  resurrection  of  the  last  day,  and  our 
bodies  be  made  like  unto  his  own  glorious  hody.  Cheer- 
fully therefore  and  with  courage  let  us  tight  on,  and  faith- 
fully perform  all  our  duties,  and  suffer,  all  the  evils  our 
heavenly  Father  sees  best  to  send  upon  us. 

"  Trials  must  and  will  befall ; 

But  with  humble  faith  to  see 
Love  inscribed  upon  them  all, 

This  is  happiness  to  me. 
God,  in  Israel,  sows  the  seeds 

Of  affliction,  pain,  and  toil ; 
Trials  make  the  promise  sweet ; 

Trials  give  new  life  to  prayer ; 
Trials  bring  me  to  his  feet, 

Lay  rae  low,  and  keep  me  there." 


I 


68  CONCEPTION   AND   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 


IV. 


JESUS    "CONCEITED"    AND    "BORN   OF   THE   VIRGIN   MARY." 


"  And  tho  "Word  was  God.     .     .     .     And  the  Word  was  made  flesh,  and 
dwelt  among  us." — John  i.  1-14;  with  1  Jdnx  iv.  2,  and  1  Tiir.  iii.  16. 


The  FORMS  of  modern  disbelief,  which  are  both  wide- 
spread and  exceedingly  dangerous,  are  in  many  points 
widely  different  from  the  unbelief  of  the  last  century. 
In  many  ways  they  are  peculiar,  and  differ  from  and  are 
more  subtle  than  the  forms  of  unbelief  that  have  existed 
at  any  time,  or  through  any  of  the  ages  since  Christ  and 
his  Apostles.  A  general  resemblance  may  indeed  be 
traced  through  them  all  from  age  to  age,  but  each  age  has 
its  peculiarities.  The  j)YeY ailing  fo7y/is  of  unbelief  in  our 
day  are  exceedingly  subtle.  Great  modesty  is  professed. 
And  the  highest  mental  culture,  and  the  most  intense 
admiration  for  the  works  of  the  Creator,  and  for  the  Fine 
Arts  as  expressive  of  the  Godlike  in  man,  are  made 
the  glosses  under  which  the  Personality  of  God,  and  the 
existence  and  character  of  His  Son  Jesus  Christ  are  denied 
or  undermined.  The  character  of  the  attack  agreed  upon 
by  the  enemies  of  Eevelation  is  changed.  There  is,  then, 
in  some  measure,  a  necessity  for  "  a  restatement  of  Chris- 
tian doctrines,"  and  a  new  line  of  defense.  Many  of  the 
old  arguments,  like  the  arms  and  artillery  of  a  past  age, 


CIIRISTIAIS^   DOCTRINES    RESTATED.  69 

fail  to  meet  the  necessities  of  our  times.  We  now  want 
needle-guns.  A  very  large  portion  of  what  is  called  the 
evangelical  Christian  literature  of  our  day  is  useless — 
irrelevant  to  the  new  issues.  Its  uselessness  is  owing  to 
the  crudeness  of  the  thoughts,  and  the  want  of  elegance, 
,  elevation,  and  refinement  in  its  literary  style.  If  I  am  not 
greatly  mistaken,  this  is  generally  admitted  by  our  best 
scholars  and  our  most  pious  men,  and  that,  too,  in  regard 
to  a  great  many  publications  found  in  our  Sabbath- 
Schools  and  popular  religious  societies.  The  necessity 
that,  certainly  in  some  measure  exists  for  '^a  restate- 
ment of  Christian  doctrines,"  does  not,  then,  arise  from 
any  new  revelations  made  to  us,  nor  from  any  progress 
or  improvement  in  the  doctrines  of  Revelation,  but  is 
owing  chiefly  to  the  style  in  which  these  doctrines  have 
been  set  forth,  and  to  the  kaleidoscope  views  of  error 
that  are  filling  the  land.  Its  Protean  forms  require  man- 
ifold answers.  Nor  are  we  without  fear  or  some  sus- 
picion that  '^a  restatement  of  Christian  doctrines"  does 
not  always  mean  a  new  statement  of  old  Christian  doc- 
trines, but  a  new  statement  of  new  doctrines  under  the 
cover  of  restating  the  old.  It  is  apparent  to  all,  that  in 
some  cases  we  have  old  and  familiar  phrases  employed  in 
an  entirely  different  sense  from  that  in  which  they  were 
used  when  they  first  became  precious  to  the  people  of 
God.  Nor  are  we  without  evidence  that  zeal  for  new 
forms  of  doctrine,  a  restatement  of  the  orthodox  faith, 
is  sometimes  a  wish  to  get  rid  of  old  doctrines  altogether. 

Ever  since  the  fourth  century,  at  least,  our  Creed  has 
been  received  as  the  Apostles'  Creed,  to  distinguish  it 
from  the  Athanasian,  Nicene,  or- other  formularies.  By 
calling  it  the  Apostles'  Creed  is  not  meant  that  it  was 
composed,  or  adopted  by  the  Apostles  just  as  we  have  it ; 
but  that  it  embodies  and  sets  forth  the  doctrines  which 


70  CONCEPTION   AND   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

the  Apostles  Ibelieved  and  preached.  It  is  true  that  the 
whole  of  the  Christian  religion  is  comprehended  in  two 
parts  : — loliat  we  are  to  believe,  and  how  we  are  to  Ime 
in  order  to  be  saved.  These  two  parts  are  the  mystery 
of  the  Truth,  and  the  mystery  of  Godliness  or  Piety. 
And  the  only  rule  or  standard  for  both  is  the  Word  of 
God  contained  in  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Tes- 
taments. These  Scriptures  teach  in  a  way  very  different 
from  all  the  systems  of  philosophers.  They  do  not 
arrange  their  doctrines  into  any  regular  system,  according 
to  the  precepts  of  any  human  school,  ancient  or  modern. 
Oriental  or  Western.  As  chemistry,  geology,  or  astrono- 
my exists  in  its  elements  in  nature,  but  is  not  set  before 
us  in  orders  and  classes  until  Science  has  worked  out  its 
discoveries,  so  it  was  only  when  the  lirst  teachers  of 
Christianity  found  it  necessary  for  the  instruction  of  the 
young  and  of  heathen  converts,  that  they  arranged  the 
principal  doctrines  of  the  Bible  under  heads  and  into 
classes.  The  followers  of  Jesus  Christ  at  first  required 
no  other  Creed,  Confession  of  Faith,  Articles  or  Cate- 
chism, than  simply  to  receive  Him  as  He  was  preached  to 
them,  believe  on  his  Name,  and  live  so  as  to  explain  and 
recommend  their  religion  by  their  temper  and  conduct. 
It  is  also  to  be  remembered  that  the  Apostles'  Creed  is 
received  by  the  whole  Christian  world  ;  with  small  excep- 
tions, and  without  serious  dissension  we  may  add,  it  is 
properly  explained  in  the  Mcene  Creed,  and  is  embodied 
in  almost  all  the  doctrinal  statements  of  Christians  every- 
where, and  so  has  been  from  the  earliest  ages. 

The  texts  of  Holy  Scripture  just  read,  seem  to  me  to 
require  but  little  analysis,  defence,  or  explanation.  It  is 
true  that  some  have  denied  that  the  first  chapter  of  John, 
and  the  sixteenth  verse  of  the  third  chapter  of  1  Timothy, 
are  a  part  of  the  inspired  writings.     But  the  reasons 


A    COMPLETE    DEMONSTRATION.  71 

given  for  rejecting  these  portions  from  the  !N"ew  Testa- 
ment are  not  satisfactory.  As  to  the  first  chapter  of  John, 
they  are  absolutely  worthless,  and  cannot  be  entertained. 
As  to  the  sixteenth  verse  from  the  third  chapter  of  1 
Timothy,  I  think  it  only  necessary  to  say  that  I  use  it  in 
connection  with  the  other  texts,  because  I  regard  it  as 
genuine,  and  because,  if  it  were  not,  it  most  happily  ex- 
presses the  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation  as  taught  every- 
where in  the  Holy  Scriptures.  The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity 
or  of  the  Incarnation  does  not  depend  on  any  one  text  of 
Scripture.  I  am  willing  to  rest  the  defence  and  explana- 
tion of  these  great  mysteries  on  the  Word  of  God  as  a 
whole.  While,  therefore,  I  do  not  regard  the  sixteenth 
verse  of  1  Timothy,  third  chapter,  as  of  doubtful  author- 
ity, still  I  rest  more  upon  the  testimony  of  the  inspired 
writers  as  a  whole,  than  upon  any  one  text.  And  surely 
it  were  difficult,  perhaps  impossible,  to  find  anywhere 
else  words  more  happily  chosen  and  better  put  together 
to  express  our  views  of  the  great  mystery  of  the  Incarna- 
tion. ^'God  was  manifest  in  the  flesh."  Jesus  Christ, 
God's  only  Son  our  Lord,  is  Emmanuel — God  with  us. 
The  Incarnation  as  set  forth  in  the  Apostles'  Creed  was 
the  first  great  truth  elaborated  and  defined  by  the  scientific 
thought  and  classic  culture  of  the  early  Church,  and  it 
seems  to  us  impossible  to  improve  it.  Perhaps  this  is 
one  of  the  reasons  why  the  thought  and  strength  of 
Christendom  are  now  absorbed  on  the  Person  of  Christ. 

It  is  true  that  I  am  ready  to  believe  any  doctrine  upon 
the  authority  of  God,  whether  it  is  set  forth  in  one  or 
many  texts.  One  word  from  God  is  sufficient.  One  text 
clearly  interpreted  is  quite  and  altogether  sufficient— just 
as  one  demonstration  in  mathematics  is  as  good  as  a  thou- 
sand. The  great  doctrines  of  the  Gospel,  however,  are 
not  tied  to  any  one  text,  nor  dependent  on  any  peculiar 


72  COiN^CEPTIOlS^   AND    BIRTH    OF   JESUS. 

line  of  interpretation.  They  beam  from  the  whole  vol- 
ume of  Revelation,  as  light  does  from  the  whole  heavens 
when  the  sun  appears. 

It  must  be  remembered  also,  as  I  have  endeavored 
before  to  impress  upon  your  minds — that  mystery 
belongs  to  true  religion,  for  it  is  a  communication  from 
the  Infinite  to  the  finite — and  that  a  fad  or  a  doctrine  may 
be  revealed,  and  yet  its  mode  of  existence  not  be  com- 
prehended. The  existence  of  a  thing  is  apart  from  our 
comprehension  of  its  existence.  There  is  a  God,  but  no 
creature  can  fully  apprehend  the  nature  or  existence  of 
God.  The  miraculous  conception  and  nativity  of  Jesus 
Christ  I  believe,  because  the  Word  of  God  says  so.  The 
whole  Incarnation  is  a  mystery.  I  believe  the  facts  stated, 
but  I  do  not  understand,  nor  am  I  able  to  explain  them 
fully.  Nor  have  I  any  ear  for,  nor  patience  with,  the 
spurious  Gospels  that  crowded  the  early  ages  of  the 
Church,  and  have  come  even  to  our  own  times,  concerning 
the  birth,  infancy,  and  youth  of  Jesus.  I  regard  them 
as  the  tales  of  inconsiderate  writers — mere  fables  or 
monkish  legends,  although  such  men  as  Baronius  and 
Xavier  have  given  some  of  them  the  sanction  of  their 
great  names.  Again  :  I  wish  to  say  that  on  these  subjects 
I  know  nothing  beyond  the  testimony  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures. I  have  no  explanation  to  give  except  what  it  has 
seemed  good  to  the  Holy  Ghost  to  reveal  to  us,  saying  :  "A 
Virgin  shall  conceive  and  bear  a  son,  who  shall  be  the  son 
of  the  Highest,  the  Mighty  God,  the  Everlasting  Father, 
the  Prince  of  Peace,"  and  "the  Holy  Ghost  shall  come 
upon  thee,  and  the  power  of  the  Highest  shall  overshadow 
thee,"  and  accordingly  ''she  was  found  with  child  of  the 
Holy  Ghost."  ''He  was  conceived  by  the  Holy  Ghost 
and  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary." 

The  third  Article  of  the  Creed,  as  embodying  and  set- 


THE    WORD    WAS    GOD.  73 

ting  forth  the  meaning  of  the  texts  quoted  concerning  the 
mystery  of  the  Incarnation,  presents  us  two  main  parts, 
namely : 

I.  The  SUBJECT  of  the  Incarnation ;  and 

II.  The  FACT  AND  MODE  THEREOF. 

1.  The  subject :  Who  is  it  that  was  conceived  and 
born  ?  The  relative  refers  to  its  antecedent  in  the  second 
Article,  which  is— ''and  in  Jesus  Christ  His  only  Son  our 
Lord  ;"  and  the  third  is  ;  "Who  was  conceived  by  the 
Holy  Ghost,  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary."  This  Article 
does  not  say  that  the  Father  or  the  Holy  Spirit  was  born 
of  the  Virgin  Mary  ;  but  it  does  say,  Jesus  Christ,  God's 
only  Son  our  Lord,  was  conceived  and  born. 

When  Paul  says,  ''  Without  controversy,  great  is  the 
mystery  of  godliness :  God  was  manifest  in  the  flesh, 
justified  in  the  spirit,  seen  of  angels,  preached  unto  the 
Gentiles,  believed  on  in  the  world,  received  up  into 
glory,"  he  gives  us  the  whole  Gospel. 

Here  I  understand,  1.  ''Without  controversy"  to 
mean,  it  cannot  be  disputed  that  in  revealed  religion 
there  are  mysteries,  especially  that  such  facts  as  he  im- 
mediately alludes  to  are  undeniable  as  facts,  and  yet 
sublimely  mysterious. 

2.  God  in  this  passage  is  the  Creator  of  all  things. 
And, 

3.  Godliness  here  denotes  the  substance  of  all  revealed 
religion.  The  doctrines  therefore  stated  in  the  16th  verse  of 
this  third  clmpter  of  1  Timothy,  are  identical  with  the  whole 
tenor  of  the  Gospel,  and  the  very  same  that  we  find  in 
the  first  chapter  of  John.     It  is  admitted  that  Jesus  Christ 


I 


74  co:n-ception  akd  birth  of  jesus. 

is  called  The  Word,  and  that  the  Word  was  with  God  in 
the  beginning,  and  the  Word  was  God.  [2-5  verses.] 

The  term  Word  represents  also  the  intimate  relation 
of  the  Son  with  the  Father.  As  reason  dwells  in  man,  so 
the  Word  dwells  in  God ;  and  as  the  Word  goes  forth 
from  the  heart  and  lips  of  man,  so  the  Word  is  sent  forth 
from  God  the  Father.     (See  p.  65,  Dr.  Browne.) 

It  is  equally  clear  that  the  Word  of  the  first  verse, 
and  of  which  the  following  verses  are  adjuncts  descriptive 
of  the  Word,  and  the  Word  of  the  14th  verse,  are  one 
and  the  same.  ''And  the  Word  was  made  flesh,  and 
dwelt  among  us."  What  or  ^cho  then  was  it  that  was 
made — not  simply  was,  but  was  made  flesh  f  ''Without 
controversy,"  may  I  not  say  the  antecedent  here  is  the 
Word  which  was  in  the  beginning  with  God  and  was  God, 
of  which  the  Apostle  says,  "All  things  were  made  by 
him  ?"  [2-5,  verses.]     ''  God  was  manifest  in  the  flesh." 

Was  made  flesh — became  man,  not  by  bringing  hu- 
manity from  Heaven,  nor  by  transmuting  Divinity  into 
human  nature,  but  by  being  born  of  a  woman,  deriving 
from  her  his  humanity.  Perhaps  the  language  of  the  ori- 
ginal creation  will  assist  our  apprehension  of  this  clause. 
God  made  man' s  body  out  of  the  dust  of  the  ground,  and 
then  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life,  and  man 
became — iDas  made — a  living  soul ;  for  so  the  Apostle 
explains :  The  first  man,  Adam,  was  made  a  living  soul. 
Man  became  a  limng  soul^  not  by  casting  off"  the  nature 
and  qualities  of  dust.  The  created  elements  of  dust  still 
remained — dust  he  still  is  and  to  dust  must  return — but 
he  became  a  living  soul  by  receiving  a  soul  from  the 
Almighty.  After  the  same  manner,  perhaps,  we  may 
compare  the  Incarnation  with  the  creation,  and  say,  so 
the  Word  was  made  flesh;   not  ceasing  to  be  God  or 


GOD    MADE    FLESH.  75 

man,  but  became  God-man — Immanuel,  God  with  ns. 
So  the  Council  of  Ephesus  (a.  d.  431)  decided  against  the 
Nestorians,  decreeing  that  "Christ  was  but  one  Person, 
in  whom  two  natures  are  intimately  united  but  not  con- 
founded." And  so  also  the  Council  of  Chalcedon(A.  d.  451) 
condemned  the  doctrine  of  the  transubstantiation  of  the 
human  nature  of  Christ  into  the  Divine,  as  held  by  Euty- 
chus.  They  decreed  that  the  two  distinct  natures  of  Christ 
"  are  united  in  one  Person,  without  any  change,  mixture, 
or  confusion." 

When  one  Apostle  says,  "  God  was  manifest  in  the 
flesh" — and  another  says,  "  And  the  Word  was  made  flesh 
and  dwelt  among  us,  full  of  grace  and  truth^''  we  are 
to  understand  God  in  human  nature,  which  human  nature 
was  composed  of  a  true  body  and  a  rational  soul,  which 
means,  as  old  Athanasius  expressed  it,  that  God  "  appro- 
priated to  himself  a  human  body  as  an  instrument  per- 
sonally united  to  him,"  and  with  whose  eyes  God  might 
look  on  us  and  see  mankind,  with  whose  ears  He  might 
hear,  and  with  whose  hands  He  might  act,  and  with 
whose  feet  He  might  walk  among  His  people,  and  in 
which  he  might  both  suffer  and  be  glorified,  and  both 
die  and  revive  and  rise  from  the  dead ;  so  that  on 
account  of  the  very  intimate  union  of  human  nature  with 
God  the  Son,  the  actions  performed  by  Him  are  really 
and  truly  the  actions  of  God,  and  the  blood  he  shed  is 
the  blood  of  God,  and  of  Him  might  be  justly  said :  "Lo ! 
this  is  our  God,  we  have  waited  for  Him,  and  He  will 
save  us  :  this  is  Jehovah,  we  have  waited  for  him,  we  will 
be  glad  and  rejoice  in  his  salvation."  Isa.  xxv.  9.  This 
is  the  glory  of  the  Lord  revealed,  which  the  Apostle  John 
says  we  beheld,  "the  glory  as  of  the  only-begotten  of 
the  Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth. ' '  There  are  many  lines 
of  argumentation  that  might  be  pursued  to  prove  the  truth 


I 


76  COI^CEPTIOX   AND   EIRTII    OF   JESUS. 

of  this  Article :  such  as  1.  The  general  and  essential  agree- 
ment of  all  orthodox  creeds:  Heidelberg,  Westminster, 
Church  of  England.  It  is  a  noteworthy  fact,  that  the 
miracuk^us  proofs  of  our  Lord' s  nativity  and  life  were  so 
manifest  in  the  earliest  ages  of  the  Church,  that  the  reality 
of  his  human  nature  was  called  in  question  by  errorists 
long  before  His  Divinity  was  impugned. 

2.  The  prevailing  idea  of  the  heathen  concerning  the 
communication  of  the  gods  with  men.  Rude  and  civilized 
nations  have  believed  that  the  divinities  descended  to  earth, 
assumed  human  forms,  and  mingled  with  men,  and  did  and 
had  to  do  with  human  beings  just  as  they  have  with  one 
another.  The  gods  in  heathen  fables  are  often  made  a 
great  convenience  when  paternity  was  wanting  for  a  child. 

3.  There  was  an  outstanding  promise  from  the  earliest 
time  that  God  would  walk  in  the  midst  of  his  people. 

4.  Symbols  of  the  old  dispensation  taught  the  same 
thing.  I  cannot  dwell  on  these.  Are  they  not  found  in 
the  books  1 

Then  without  allowing  our  curiosity  to  carry  us  into 
mysteries  which  it  is  not  becoming  in  us  to  profane,  we  may 
say  that  the  reason  why  the  Lord  Jesus  is  called  the 
Word  is  that  it  has  pleased  the  Father  to  make  known  to  us 
the  revelations  of  His  grace  through  His  Son.  Language, 
words,  speech  is  the  vehicle,  the  channel  for  conveying 
thought — making  known  our  wishes.  So  it  is  only  through 
His  Son  that  the  will  of  God  is  made  known  to  us  for  our 
salvation.  Even  the  patriarchs  and  prophets  spake  by  the 
Spirit  of  Christ.  They  were  illuminated  by  His  Spirit. 
He  is  the  only  High  Priest  and  Prophet  of  God.  And  as 
the  Word  was  the  Creator  of  the  world  in  the  very  begin- 
ning, so  it  was  worthy  of  the  Divine  Method  that  the  way 


CHRIST    WAS    TRULY    A    MAN.  77 

of  salvation  should  be  revealed  by  the  Word,  and  that 
the  heart  should  be  created  anew  by  the  very  same  power 
that  created  all  things.  Nor  is  it  unworthy  of  being 
remembered  that  it  is  the  work  of  Ilim  who  is  God's  only 
Son  to  make  us  the  sons  of  God,  even  all  who  believe  on 
His  name — that  He  who  is  himself  the  express  image  of 
the  Father  and  the  brightness  of  his  glory  should  restore  us 
to  the  image  of  God  in  which  we  were  created.  And  hence 
as  this  is  done  by  His  Spirit,  whose  office  it  is  to  make 
us  holy  by  renewing  the  heart,  and  applying  the  benefits 
of  his  redemption,  so  the  Spirit  is  called  the  Holy  Spirit. 

II.  As  to  the  FACT  AND  MODE  of  God  manifesting  him- 
self in  the  flesh,  we  are  to  receive  the  words  conceived  and 
horn  in  their  full  force.  The  Gnostics,  the  Doceta3,  and 
the  Manich^ans  taught  that  Jesus  did  not  actually  take, 
but  only  assumed  the  appearance  of  a  man.  This  opinion 
prevailed  generally  for  a  time  among  several  Oriental  and 
Judaizing  sects.  This  and  similar  errors  are  found  float- 
ing along  the  current  of  theological  controversy  in  the 
early  ages,  and  connected  with  the  Apollinarians,  Nesto- 
rians,  Eutychians,  and  Monothelists.  It  was  to  meet  and 
refute  such  heathenish  conceits  or  Jewish  fancies,  the 
Church  put  forth  and  adhered  so  firmly  to  the  terms  of 
our  Creed:  "The  Word  was  made  flesh."  Jesus  was 
truly  man — not  a  phantom  or  spectre,  but  was  born  of 
his  mother  as  other  children,  and  grew  in  stature  and  in 
wisdom  just  as  John  the  Baptist  did.  He  had  all  the 
essential  parts  of  a  human  being,  mind,  soul,  body,  and 
aff'ections,  and  was  subject  to  thirst,  hunger,  fatigue, 
sorrow,  and  tears,  just  as  we  are,  excepting  our  sense  of 
guilt  or  sin.  He  came  eating  and  drinking,  and  was  found 
in  fashion  as  a  man.  He  was  perfect  man  because,  accord- 
ing to  the  Scriptures,  he  had  a  human  body  and  a  human 
soul,  both  subject  to  human  conditions  and  invested  with 


78  CONCEPTION   AND   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

human  attributes.  His  human  body  took  its  substance 
from  his  mother ;  he  was  born,  grew,  and  was  liable  to 
hunger,  pain,  weariness,  bleeding,  and  wounds  and  lacer- 
ation. He  had  flesh  and  blood,  and  bones,  and  nerves,  and 
was  cruciiied,  dead  and  buried,  as  if  he  were  only  a  man ; 
and  yet  He  was  God. 

First.  ' '  God  was  manifest  in  the  flesh. '  *  "  The  Word 
was  made  flesh,"  not  by  any  change  of  Divinity  into 
humanity.  This  is  impossible,  for  it  is  essential  to  the 
Divine  nature  that  it  should  be  unchangeable.  Nor, 
secondly.,  Was  there  any  confusing.,  compounding,  or 
confounding  of  two  natures  into  one ;  for  in  Jesus  * 
Christ  we  have  two  distinct  natures,  each  having  its  own 
distinct  properties,  and  yet  but  one  person. 

Nor,  thirdly.,  W^as  this  union  of  these  two  natures  for 
a  few  years  only.  It  remains  forever.  In  Phil.  ii.  7,  we 
are  expressly  told  that  the  Son  of  God  took  upon  himself 
the  form  of  a  servant  and  was  made  in  the  likeness  of 
men.  By  the  form  of  a  servant  we  are  given  to  under- 
stand his  debased  condition.  His  human  nature  was  in 
the  state  or  debasement  of  a  servant,  and  his  humanity 
was  real.  Being  in  the  form  of  God — equal  with  God- 
God  himself.     Heb.  ii.  14. 

And,  fourthly.,  In  the  mother  of  our  Lord,  all  the  re- 
quirements of  the  prophecies  and  promises  concerning  the 
Messiah  are  fully  satisfied.  He  was  to  be  of  the  seed  of 
Eve  and  of  the  seed  of  Abraham,  of  the  nation  of  Israel, 
of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  of  the  house  of  David,  and  to  be 
born  in  Bethlehem,  and  of  a  virgin.  And  every  one 
of  these  requirements  is  fully  met  in  the  history  of  the 
miraculous  conception  and  birth  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

Born  of  the  Virgin  Mary  asserts  then  that  she  was  his 
mother — that  his  human  nature  was  not  brought  down 


JESUS  BETTER    Til  AN    ADAM.  79 

from  heaven,  but  was  taken  from  her  substance,  just  as 
John  the  Baptist  was  born  of  his  mother.  He  ''was 
made  of  a  woman."  He  was  "  the  fruit  of  Mary's 
womb,  and  the  seed  of  the  woman."  The  blessed  Virgin 
is  expressly  called  his  mother,  and  is  so  recognized  by 
Him  and  by  his  disciples.  The  expression  then  that 
Christ  descended  from  heaven  does  not  belong  to  his 
human  nature,  but  to  Him  as  the  Son  of  God.  By  this 
expression  I  understand  simply  what  the  Apostles  say  : 
"  God  was  manifest  in  the  flesh."  ''  The  Word  was  made 
flesh."  It  is  worse  than  blasphemy  to  seek  any  explana- 
tion of  our  Lord's  descent  from  heaven  in  the  dew  of  the 
eternal  Godhead,  or  of  celestial,  starry,  or  elementary  mat- 
ter becoming  refined,  and  producing  as  a  result  the  child 
Jesus.  Errorists  have  shown  themselves  exceedingly 
ingenious  in  devices  to  get  rid  of  the  simple  truth  of  our 
inspired  record,  but  still  it  remains  true,  that  Jesus 
Christ,  God's  only  Son,  our  Lord,  was  conceived  by  the 
Holy  Ghost  in  the  womb  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  born  of 
her  at  the  stated  time  and  in  the  usual  way,  and  yet  with- 
out sin,  so  that  He  did  really  come  in  the  flesh,  was  the 
Son  of  man,  as  well  as  the  Son  of  God. 

The  wording  of  this  Article  concerning  the  Incarnation 
is  very  important.  "'  The  Son  of  God  took  man's  nature 
in  the  womb  of  the  blessed  Virgin,  of  her  substance  ;  so 
that  two  whole  and  perfect  natures,  that  is  to  say,  the 
godhead  and  manhood,  were  joined  together  in  one  Per- 
son, never  to  be  divided,  whereof  is  one  Christ,  very  God 
and  very  man." 

What,  then,  are  the  benefits,  or  as  Witsius  denominates 
them,  the  fruits  of  the  Truth  of  this  Article  to  us  ?  The 
Heidelberg Gatecl[\\sm  answers,  that  Christ  is  "our  Media- 
tor ;  and  with  his  innocence  and  perfect  holiness  covers 


I 


80  COlSrCEPTIOK   AND   BIETH    OF   JESUS. 

in  the  siglit  of  God  my  sins,  wherein  I  was  conceived 
and  brought  forth. ' ' 

There  are  three  points  in  this  Article: — 1.  Jesns 
Christ  was  lorn  of  a  Virgin  hy  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ohost.  2.  He  was  taken  from  among  his  brethren  as  one 
of  them  ;  and,  3.  He  was  truly  man  as  well  as  really 
God.  And  the  first,  that  he  was  born  of  a  Virgin,  shows 
that  He  was  not  under  the  curse  that  fell  upon  Adam  on  his  {/ 
own  account.  He  was  not  represented  in  Adam' s  cove- 
nant, and  consequently  not  liable  to  the  imputation  of 
Adam's  guilt.  He  did  not  exist  in  Adam,  when  Adam 
sinned  ;  for  He  was  not  born  by  virtue  of  the  ordinary 
law  of  generation  descending  from  Adam,  nor  as  a  fruit 
of  the  Divine  command  given  to  Adam  before  the  fall, 
which  said,  ''Be  fruitful  and  multiply."  On  the  con- 
trary, Jesus  Christ  was  born  in  the  fulfilment  of  the  new 
promise  in  the  covenant  made  after  the  fall,  in  which  He 
is  denominated  ''the  seed  of  the  woman,"  and  appointed 
the  second  Adam,  the  Head  and  representative  of  the  new 
creation  to  proceed  from  the  woman.  [See  this  sub- 
ject presented  at  length  in  Witsius,  vol.  ii.,  p.  29,  &c.] 
This  immaculate  conception  and  birth  of  our  Lord  estab- 
lishes the  original  purity  of  his  human  nature.  He  was 
holy,  harmless,  without  sin  of  any  kind,  except  as  He 
bore  our  sins  as  our  propitiation.  And  this  vieAV  of  our 
Lord's  human  nature  is  important,  for  it  gives  Him  the 
right  and  ability  to  suffer  for  us  as  our  Surety,  since 
He  was  under  no  obligations  to  suffer  for  himself ;  and  it 
also  is  intended  as  a  cover  for  our  original  sin,  in  which 
we  are  conceived  and  born.  As  our  Surety  His  righteous- 
ness is  perfect  in  every  thing  the  law  could  demand  of  us. 
For  our  sake,  therefore.  He  was  conceived  and  born  with- 
out sin,  in  order  that  His  original  righteousness  might 
cover  our  original  sin,  and  supply  our  want  of  original 


JESUS   IS    OUR  GOEL.  81 

righteousness.  When  we  say  that  Christ  is  thus  made 
of  God  to  us  righteousness,  and  that  \yY  putting  on  Christ 
we  are  covered,  and  are  one  with  Him,  and  thus  saved 
from  original  as  well  as  actual  sin,  we  do  not  mean  that 
the  life  and  sufierings  and  death  of  Christ  were  not  also 
necessary.  By  no  means.  His  great  redemption  work 
consists  in  and  of  all  his  life  and  death. — His  entire  right- 
eousness, original  and  actual,  active  and  passive. 

And  as  to  the  other  two  points,  that  Jesus  Christ  was 
man^  and  taken  from  his  brethren  to  represent  them,  we 
may  consider  them  together.  They  are  in  fact  insepara- 
ble, and  are  supported  by  the  same  texts  of  Scripture. 
"There  is,"  says  Paul,  "one  Mediator  between  God 
and  men,  the  man  Christ  Jesus."  And  as  the  one  only 
Mediator,  He  combined  in  himself  the  two  natures  be- 
tween which  He  was  to  mediate.  He  was  the  Son  of  God 
T^  — was  God  ;  and  he  was  the  Son  of  man — was  man.  He 
could  therefore  lay  his  hands  upon  both  and  make  them 
to  he  at  one — make  an  atonement — "  satisfy  divine  justice 
and  reconcile  us  to  God." 

And  still  more,  as  our  Surety,  He  had  to  perform  all 
the  law  required  of  us,  and  endure  all  the  law  demanded 
of  us  ;  and  as  the  law  is  very  extensive  and  searching  in 
its  demands  of  us,  reaching  the  body,  the  soul,  and  the 
spirit,  both  as  to  its  requirements  and  its  threatenings,  so 
Jesus  was  made  of  a  woman,  and  made  under  the  law, 
that  human  nature  in  Him,  subject  to  the  law,  could 
magnify  it  and  make  it  honorable,  fulfil  all  righteousness 
in  body  and  soul,  and  that  He  by  his  death  might  taste 
death  for  all,  and  deliver  his  people  from  the  power  of 
death.  And  hence  He  is  our  Goel,  Redeemer.  "  For  he 
who  sanctifieth  and  they  who  are  sanctified  should  be  all 
of  one  blood,  that  they  might  call  each  other  brethren." 
"  Wherefore  it  behoved  him  in  all  things  to  be  made  like 

6 


82  CONCEPTION   AND   BIRTH    OF   JESUS. 

unto  his  "brethren."  ''For  verily  He  took  not  on  him  the 
nature  of  angels,  [He  undertook  not  the  redemption  of 
angels,]  but  He  took  on  him  the  seed  of  Abraham." 

You  remember  that  the  Hebrew  Goel,  Redeemer, 
was  to  be  the  nearest  of  kin  that  was  capable  of  the  func- 
tions pertaining  to  the  Goel.  And  it  was  his  duty  to 
redeem  the  inheritance  of  his  kinsman  that  had  been  sold 
or  alienated  ;  and  to  recover  his  kinsman' s  freedom  if  he 
had  become  a  captive,  or  was  in  bondage  for  debt ;  and 
to  avenge  his  blood,  if  murdered  ;  Siudi  fourthly,  to  marry 
the  wife  of  his  deceased  kinsman  to  raise  up  seed  to  him, 
that  his  family  might  not  become  extinct  in  Israel. 

It  is  not  strange,  therefore,  that  the  Prophets  who 
flourished  after  Moses  should  speak  of  the  coming  Mes- 
siah as  the  great  Goel,  Redeemer,  Kinsman,  for  all 
things  that  the  law  required  in  the  Goel  are  found  united 
in  Christ.  First.  By  his  meritorious  righteousness  He 
has  redeemed  our  forfeited  inheritance,  and  makes 
"  Paradise  Regained"  more  glorious  than  the  "  Paradise 
Lost."  Secondly.  He  delivers  us  from  the  captivity  of 
Satan  and  the  power  of  sin.  Thirdly.  He  takes  ven- 
geance on  our  enemies,  the  devil  and  his  allies,  and  all 
our  sins.  The  Son  of  God  was  manifested  to  destroy  the 
works  of  the  devil.  Fourthly.  By  redeeming  us  from 
the  guilt,  and  power,  and  pollution,  and  dominion  of 
sin.  He  gives  us  power  to  become  the  sons  of  God,  even 
to  as  many  as  believe  on  his  Name.  Thus  he  saves  and 
redeems  by  price  and  by  power. 

In  conclusion,  let  us  learn  especially, 

I.  That  Jesus  Christ,  God's  only  Son  our  Lord,  is  the 
one  and  only  Mediator  between  God  and  men.  It  is  only 
when,  and  as  we  see  the  glory  of  God  in  Christ,  that  the 


DO   WE   LOVE   THIS    CHRIST?  83 

conscience  oppressed  with  the  load  of  guilt  finds  peace. 
God's  method  of  justifying  and  saving  sinners  is  wisdom 
beyond  the  grasp  of  any  creature.  How  astonishing  the 
love,  how  sublime  the  plan,  that  God's  Eternal  Son  should 
be  born  of  a  woman  and  become  a  man  to  redeem  them 
that  are  under  the  law,  who  should  believe  on  his  name, 
and  accept  Him  as  their  surety.  Having  both  the  natures 
of  the  parties  at  variance  which  He  was  to  reconcile,  He 
could  do  justice  to  both.  God  and  man  meet  in  Christ, 
and  man  who  was  at  enmity  with  God  is  reconciled  to 
God,  and  taken  into  his  close  embrace.  It  is  there  and 
thus  the  treaty  of  peace  was  begun  and  concluded.  ''  Had 
God  and  man  treated  anywhere  but  in  the  person  of 
Christ,  a  peace  had  never  been  concluded,  yea,  it  had 
broke  up  at  first ;  but  being  in  Him,  it  could  not  fail,  for 
in  him  they  were  already  one.  One  person,  so  there  they 
could  not  but  agree  :  '  God  was  in  Christ,  reconciling  the 
world  to  himself.'  " — LeigMon.  Dear  hearer,  do  not 
these  mysteries  satisfy  your  soul,  thirsting  after  salvation  % 
Is  not  this  the  only  way  of  reconciliation  worthy  the  per- 
fections of  God  and  safe  for  man  \  Are  not  these  some  of 
the  awful  mysteries  of  the  Gospel,  which  eye  hath  not 
seen,  nor  ear  heard,  and  which  have  not  entered  into  the 
heart  of  man ;  which  were  kept  secret  since  the  world 
began,  but  now  are  made  manifest,  and  by  the  Scriptures 
of  the  prophets,  according  to  the  commandment  of  the 
Everlasting  God,  are  made  known  to  all  nations  for  the 
obedience  of  faith  \    Rom.  xvi.  25,  26. 

II.  Should  we  not  feel  the  strongest  love  for  Christy 
seeing  that  He  has  so  loved  us  f  Angels  are  superior  to 
us,  but  when  angels  sinned,  they  were  left  without  a  Goal 
— left  to  suffer  the  punishment  due  to  their  transgressions. 
Christ  took  not  upon  himself  the  nature  of  angels,  but  our 
nature.     He  came  down  to  us  in  the  likeness  of  men — be- 


I 


84  CO]S^CEPTION   AKD   BIRTH   OF   JESUS. 

came  man.  The  Lord  of  glory  did  not  empty  hiriiself, 
did  not  veil  the  rays  of  ineffable  majesty,  to  become 
one  of  the  cherubim  or  seraphim,  or  a  companion 
with  the  highest  orders  of  angelic  hosts  in  their  govern- 
ment of  worlds — not  to  be  born  a  monarch,  and  sit  on  a 
throne,  but  to  be  born  of  a  woman  in  a  stable — born  to' 
suffer  and  to  die,  that  we  might  live.  "  In  all  things  he 
was  made  like  unto  us,  that  he  might  be  a  merciful  and 
faithful  High  Priest,  in  things  pertaining  to  God,  to 
make  reconciliation  for  the  sins  of  the  people." 

III.  Forget  not,  dear  brethren,  one  thing  more :  He 
who  was  conceived  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  horn  of  the 
Virgin  Mary  must  be  formed  in  our  hearts,  the  hope  of 
glory.  He  must  live  in  our  hearts,  and  be  nourished 
there,  and  grow  up  there,  until  by  His  dwelling  in  us,  we 
attain  unto  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of 
Christ.  We  are  not  Christ' s  unless  we  have  His  spirit. 
Are  we  Christ's  1  Do  we  really  belong  to  him  ?  Angels, 
you  know,  announced  his  birth,  saying  :  ''Glory  to  God 
in  the  highest,  peace  on  earth,  good- will  toward  men." 
Have  we  peace  with  Godf  Can  we  and  do  we  truly  say : 
We  adore  Thee — we  worship  Thee — we  acknowledge  Thee 
as  our  God  and  Saviour — we  expect  salvation  from 
Thee  ?  May  the  whole  world  unite  with  us  in  knowing, 
acknowledging,  and  praising  Thee,  to  whom  be  glory, 
with  the  Father  and  the  Eternal  Spirit,  as  it  was  in  the 
beginning,  is  now,  and  ever  shall  be,  world  without 
end.     Amen. 


PILATE    TIIE  HEATHEN    JUDGE.  85 


V. 


CHRIST    "SUFFERED   UNDER   PONTIUS    PILATE. 


"  Thus  it  is  Av^ritten,  and  thus  it  behooved  Christ  to  suffer." — Luke  xxiv.  46, 
"But  those  things,  which  God  before  had  shewed  by  the  mouth  of  all  his  proph- 
ets, that  Christ  should  suffer,  he  hath  so  fulfilled." — Acts  iii.  18,  together  with 
chapter  liii.  of  Isaiah. 

I  HAVE  not  time  this  evening,  nor  do  I  consider  it  at 
all  necessarj^,  in  sucli  a  presence  as  this,  to  analyze  or  to 
present  a  synopsis  of  the  texts  of  Holy  Scripture  read  in 
order  to  show  that  they  teach  that  Jesus  Christ  suffered 
under  Pontius  Pilate^  nor  is  it  my  purpose  now  to 
speak  of  the  application  of  the  fifty -third  chapter  of  Isa- 
iah to  the  Messiah.  It  is  confessed  by  the  most  ancient 
Jewish  authorities  that  this  prophecy  does  relate  to  the 
Messiah.  And  so  plainly  does  it  suit  the  character  of 
Jesus,  that  it  has  long  been  contended  by  some  Jewish 
Rabbis  that  two  Messiahs  are  promised  in  their  sacred 
books,  one  to  redeem  and  suffer,  and  another  to  reign  as  a 
glorious  Prince.  A  sufficient  answer  to  this  is,  that  such 
an  interpretation  of  the  old  Hebrew  Scriptures  is  clearly 
an  invention,  for  the  purpose  of  getting  rid  of  the  testimo- 
ny of  the  sacred  writers  to  Jesus  as  the  promised  Messiah. 
AYe  are  not  able  to  find  a  syllable  in  support  of  it  from  the 
beginning  of  Genesis  to  the  end  of  the  book  of  Revela- 


86 

tion.  Moses  and  the  Prophets,  and  the  Psalms,  know 
nothing  of  two  Messiahs,  but  they  do  speak  of  one  Mes- 
siah who  was  both  to  suffer  and  die  and  to  triumph,  to 
be  humbled  and  to  be  exalted,  to  be  clothed  with  human- 
ity, and  yet  to  wear  the  robe  of  immortality  and  of  inef- 
fable majesty.  There  is  no  trace  of  any  expectation  of 
two  Messiahs  among  the  Jews  before  the  coming  of  Christ. 
This  interpretation  was  not  thought  of  until  it  became  a 
necessary  invention  to  weaken  or  destroy  the  proof  that 
Jesus  was  the  Messiah,  by  showing  that  all  the  require- 
ments of  the  old  Jewish  Church  were  fulfilled  in  Him. 

The  fourth  Article  of  the  Apostles'  Creed  is :  '^  Suf- 
fered under  Pontius  Pilate,  was  crucified,  dead  and  bur- 
ied." We  do  not  find  both  expressions,  "  suffered"  and 
*' was  crucified,"  in  some  of  the  old  Creeds,  but  only 
was  crucified  under  Pontius  Pilate.  The  sense  is  not 
changed  by  the  omission,  but  I  prefer  both  expressions 
just  as  we  have  them,  and,  by  divine  assistance,  I  hope  to 
show  that  both  are  true,  and  that  both  are  important 
terms  in  our  holy  religion.  I  confine  myself,  for  the  pre- 
sent, to  the  first  clause  :  *'  Suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate." 
Common  ecclesiastical  usage  appropriates  the  word  Pas- 
sion to  the  sufferings  of  our  Lord  at  and  during  his 
crucifixion,  as  in  Acts  i.  3  :  ''To  whom  also  he  showed 
himself  alive  after  his  passion"^ ^ — his  suffering — pre- 
eminently, his  sufferings  at  the  close  of  his  life. 

I.  Then  let  us  look  a  little  at  the  heathen  judge  under 
whom  our  Lord  suffered. 

First.  Pontius  Pilate  is  named  in  this  Article  of  the 
Creed,  not  because  he  was  in  any  way  able  to  impart 
value  to  our  Lord's  sufferings ;  but  it  was  well  to  iden- 
tify historically  the  period  of  our  Lord's  sufferings  and 
death.     The  Evangelists  had  told  us  of  the  epoch  of  his 


~-\ 


PILATE   FULFILLINa   PROPHECY.  87 

"birth,  so  also  it  was  desirable  to  fix  that  of  his  death. 
There  are  historic  periods  connected  with  historic  names 
in  the  Roman  Empire.  And  such  simple  references  to 
easily  identified  persons  are  strong  collateral  proof  of  the 
truthfulness  and  authority  of  our  sacred  writers.  If  they 
had  not  been  honest,  straightforward  men,  never  suspect- 
ing that  any  one  would  ever  doubt  their  veracity,  we 
cannot  think  they  would  have  dared  to  commit  them- 
selves to  dates,  names,  and  events,  as  they  have  done. 


The  Creed,  in  saying  that  Jesus  suffered  under  Pon- 
tius Pilate^  fixes  the  date  of  his  crucifixion,  and  enables 
us  to  examine  the  events  of  the  Gospel  by  the  light  of 
the  profane  history  of  the  same  times,  in  the  same  century. 
LuTce  tells  .us  that  Pontius  Pilate  was  governor  of  Judea 
when  John  the  Baptist  came  preaching  in  the  wilderness, 
and  we  know  from  Roman  history  that  this  was  true  ;  and 
we  know  also  that  Pilate  was  removed  from  office  just 
before  the  death  of  the  Emperor  Tiberius,  and  after  he 
had  held  his  government  ten  years.  And  it  is  also  in 
evidence  that  it  was  the  custom  for  all  Roman  governors 
to  make  reports  from  their  government  to  the  Emperor, 
and  for  these  reports  to  be  kept  on  file  at  Rome.  And 
no  doubt  Pilate  made  a  report  to  his  imperial  master  at 
Rome  concerning  the  life  and  trial  and  death  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth,  and  accordingly  Justin  Martyr^  in  his  defence 
of  Christianity,  or  Apology^  as  it  was  called  in  his  day, 
written  in  the  early  part  of  the  second  century,  boldly 
appeals  to  the  ''  Record  of  the  Acts  of  Pontius  Pilate,"  on 
file  in  Rome,  for  the  truth  of  the  facts  concerning  Jesus 
as  given  by  our  Evangelists.  TertulUan  also,  from  the 
early  age  of  the  Church,  and  in  fact,  I  believe,  the  vol- 
ume of  evidence  from  the  Fathers  and  the  first  ages  of  the 
Church,  is  decidedly  in  favor  of  the  Acts  of  Pilate  as  a 


88  "SUFFEEED   UNDER   PONTIUS   PILATE." 

well-known   and  existing   record,  on  file  in   Rome,   of 
Pilate's  government  in  tlie  second  century. 

And  you  are  all  aware,  I  presume,  that  there  is  a  pas- 
sage in  Joseplius  that  speaks  of  Christ  as  an  extraordinary 
person  who  appeared  at  this  time  in  Judea ;  but  as  it  is 
alleged  that  this  passage  is  an  interpolation,  and  does  not 
"belong  to  the  original  text,  I  do  not  insist  upon  it.  I  am 
not  willing  to  decide  dogmatically  that  the  passage  in 
Josephus  is  spurious,  but  we  do  not  need  any  doubtful 
authority.  We  have  direct  testimony  from  the  "  Annals 
of  Tacitus,"  which  cannot  be  impeached,  that  ^'Nero 
j)ersecuted  with  exquisite  torments  a  sect  of  men  com- 
monly called  Christians^ — so  called  from  Christus,  whoX 
in  the  reign  of  Tiberius  was  executed  under  Pontius 
Pilate,  the  Procurator  of  Judea."  Testimony  of  this  sort 
might  be  greatly  multiplied,  but  it  cannot  be  necessary. 

Secondly.  It  is  a  fact,  then,  in  the  next  place,  that 
Roman  history  acquaints  us  with  the  state  of  Judea  as  a 
Roman  province  under  just  such  a  government  as  is  im- 
plied in  our  narrative.  The  Jews  were  then  under  the 
Roman  yoke,  a  foreign,  heathen,  hated  government. 
Pontius  Pilate  was  a  Roman  knight,  and  the  Roman  gov- 
ernor of  Judea  under  the  Emperor  Tiberius.  The  sceptre 
had  actually  departed  from  Judah.  The  appointed  time 
for  Messiah's  advent  had  expired.  The  Jews  themselves 
bore  witness  to  their  own  degradation,  when  they  said  to 
Pilate,  ''  It  is  not  lawful  for  us  to  put  any  man  to  death  ;" 
and  confirmed  it  by  saying:  ^'We  have  no  king  but 
Caesar."  It  is  not  material  to  determine  how  the  JeAvs  liad 
lost  this  power  of  life  and  death.  It  is  sufiicient  to  prove 
that  such  was  the  fact  at  this  time,  and  that  it  was  also  a 
fact  that  the  Procurators  had  the  power  of  life  and  death, 
which  is  well  attested  by  the  history  of  the  administra- 
tions of  the  provinces  of  the  Roman  empire,  that  of  Judea 


PILATE'S   GEEAT  CONFESSIOK  89 

included,  and  to  prove  also  that  Jesus  suffered  under 
Pontius  Pilate.  Now,  let  it  he  noted  that  prophecy- 
required,  if  Jesus  of  Nazareth  were  the  true  Messiah, 
that  he  should  be  taken  from  prison  and  from  judg- 
ment— that  is,  from  confinement  and  guards,  and  from  the 
place  of  judgment ;  and  that  at  this  judgment-seat  his 
innocence  should  be  established.  Accordingly,  after  all 
the  base  arts  employed  to  condemn  our  Lord,  after  a  strict 
investigation,  and  protracted  discussion,  the  perfect  inno- 
cence of  Jesus  is  fully  recognized  by  his  judge,  and 
jive  times  declared  by  him.  And  I  need  not  here  say  that 
"the  whole  concern  of  our  salvation  turns  upon  this 
hinge  ;"  namely,  that  Jesus  Christ  was  innocent,  and 
was  condemned  and  suffered  not  for  sins  of  his  own,  but 
for  us.  Pilate  acted  unjustly  in  condemning  Jesus  to 
gratify  the  •  clamors  of  the  mob — condemning  a  person 
whom  he  himself  had  acquitted ;  but  this  acquittal  is  a 
precious  testimony  to  us.  ' '  Then  was  the  chastisement 
of  our  peace  upon  him,  and  with  his  stripes  we  are 
healed." 

Again,  Thirdly.  As  the  promised  Messiah  was  to  be  a 
Saviour  for  Gentiles  as  well  as  Jews — all  nations  were  to 
be  blessed  in  Abraham's  seed — so  it  was  right  for  him,  in 
suffering  "/or  all^  to  suffer  from  alV^  "  For  of  a  truth, 
[Acts  iv.  27]  against  thy  holy  child  Jesus,  whom,  thou 
hast  anointed,  both  Herod  and  Pontius  Pilate  with  the 
Gentiles  and  the  people  of  Israel  were  gathered  together." 

Again,  Fourthly.  Nailing  to  the  cross  was  a  Roman 
punishment — unusual  ampng  the  Jews.  If  Jesus  had 
been  put  to  death  by  a  Hebrew  judge,  he  would  have 
been  stoned^  according  to  the  laws  of  the  Jews  ;  but  as  he 
was  condemned  under  a  Gentile  governor,  he  was  cruci- 
fied, and  the  Scriptures  were  fulfilled. 


90  "suffered   under   POISTTIUS    PILATE." 

Again,  Fifthly.  It  is  in  evidence  abundantly  from 
profane  history,  that  Pontius  Pilate  was  a  man  of  just 
such  a  temper  and  disposition  as  we  should  expect  him 
to  be,  from  his  picture  drawn  for  us  by  the  Evangelists. 

Philo  says  he  ''  was  a  man  of  an  inflexible  and  severe 
disposition,  charged  with  accepting  bribes,  with  acts  of  V^ 
injustice,  rapacity,  violence,  and  oppression,  with  the 
frequent  murders  of  persons  uncondemned,  and,  in  fine, 
with  the  most  insatiable  and  savage  cruelty."  And 
surely  it  required  such  a  man  ; — a  man  of  such  barbarous 
character  only  could  have  pursued  so  cruel,  inconsistent, 
and  vacillating  a  course  as  he  did  in  condemning  Jesus. 
We  may  add,  however,  before  we  leave  him,  that  his 
wickedness  was  no  gain  to  him.  He  was  punished  for 
his  crimes  in  various  ways.  First  he  was  reprimanded, 
then  deposed  by  the  Goveror-Greneral  of  Syria,  and  at  last 
sent  to  Rome,  to  plead  his  cause  in  person  before  the 
Emperor,  but  failed  in  his  defence,  and  was  condemned 
to  perpetual  exile  in  Gaul,  and  there  he  was  so  tormented 
by  his  own  conscience,  and  by  persecution,  that  he  laid 
violent  hands  on  himself.  '•'  Thus,"  as  Bishop  Ado^  in  his 
Chronicles  of  Yienne,  the  place  where  Pontius  Pilate 
died,  says,  *' seeking  in  death  a  speedy  release  from  a 
train  of  protracted  calamities."  I  might  add  here  that 
this  kind  of  testimony  could  be  rolled  up  almost  indefi- 
nitely, and  that  there  is  no  conflicting  evidence— there  is 
not  a  syllable  of  counter  or  impeaching  testimony.  There- 
fore, when  we  say  suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate^  our 
Creed  is  in  harmony,  firsts  with  historic,  with  known  and 
acknowledged  historic  personal  verities  belonging  to  the 
life  and  times  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the  Son  of  God. 

Secondly^  it  coincides  with  prophecy — in  this,  first, 
Shiloh  could  not  come  until  the  sceptre  had  departed  from 


THE   GLORIOUS    SUFFERER.  91 

Judah,  which  was  not  true  iintil  after  the  death  of  Herod 
the  Great.  Secondly^  according  to  the  Psalmist,  Christ 
the  Lord' s  anointed  was  to  sufler  not  only  from  the  Jews, 
but  also  from  the  Gentiles  ;  ^' Why  do  the  heathen  rage, 
and  the  people  imagine  a  vain  thing  %  The  kings  of  the 
earth  set  themselves,  and  the  rulers  take  counsel  together 
against  the  Lord  and  his  anointed. ' '  And  so  our  Lord  him- 
self predicted.  "The  Son  of  man  shall  be  betrayed  unto 
the  chief  priests,  and  unto  the  scribes,  and  they  shall 
condemn  him  to  death,  and  shall  deliver  him  to  the  Gentiles 
to  mock,  and  to  scourge,  and  to  crucify  him." 


II.  Let  us  inquire,  in  the  second  place  :  Who  "  suffered 
under  Pontius  Pilate?"  Answer:  It  was  Jesus  Christ, 
God' s  only  Son,  our  Lord,  who  was  conceived  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary — Christ  the  Media- 
tor, the  God-man,  who  suffered  in  his  whole  person.  The 
whole  man,  body  and  soul,  owed  obedience  to  the  law  of 
God.  The  whole  man,  therefore,  was  liable  to  punish- 
ment. It  was  necessary  then  for  Christ,  as  our  represen- 
tative and  surety^  to  suffer  in  his  whole  person,  both  in 
soul  and  body,  that  He  might  satisfy  Divine  Justice  in 
all  its  claims  upon  man,  by  sustaining  the  punishment 
due  to  sin,  expiating  human  guilt,  and  glorifying  God  in 
both  the  body  and  soul  of  human  nature.  Guilt  lay  on 
man  ;  both  his  body  and  soul  were  therefore  to  suffer, — 
both  were  contaminated  with  sin,  and  all  his  faculties 
impaired  by  sin.  The  whole  man  must  suffer.  Heidel- 
berg Catechism  well  says,  "  The  words.  He  suffered^  mean 
that  all  the  time  Jesus  Christ  lived  on  earth,  but  especially 
at  the  end  of  his  life,  He  sustained,  in  body  and  soul,  the 
wrath  of  God  against  the  sins  of  all  mankind ;  that  so, 
by  his  passion,  as  the  only  propitiatory  sacrifice,  he 
might  redeem  our  body  and  soul  from  everlasting  damna- 


I 


92  WHAT   CHEIST   SUFFEEED   FOE    US. 

tion,  and  obtain  for  us  the  favor  of  God,  righteousness, 
and  eternal  life." 


III.  In  what  sense  did  Dimnity  suffer  in  the  person 
of  Christ  f  In  itself  the  Godhead  suffered  nothing  ;  but 
Divinity  afforded  strength  to  the  suffering  humanity  of 
the  Mediator.  So  great  was  the  weight  of  the  curse  upon 
sin  that  human  nature  could  not  have  endured  it  without 
support. 

Again,  the  indwelling  of  Divinity  imparted  value  and 
woiih  to  the  sufferings  of  the  Messiah  Christ.  It  is  in 
reference  to  such  an  indwelling  that  the  Apostle  refers  in 
Col.  ii.  9,  when,  in  speaking  of  Jesus  Christ,  he  says,  "  In 
whom  dwelleth  all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  bodily." 
Bodily  here  is  emphatic.  Christ  dwells  in  true  believers 
mystically,  and  is  present  in  the  elements  of  the  sacra- 
ment symbolically,  and  is  said  to  have  ^\N^i figuratively 
and  typically  in  the  Ark,  in  the  Temple ;  but  here  it  is 
said,  all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  dwelleth  bodily  in 
Christ.  Bodily^  that  is,  really  and  personally :  as  the 
body  is  opposed  to  the  shadow,  and  means  the  reality, 
and  designates  a  person.  The  merits  of  the  sufferings  of 
Christ  are  often  described  as  flowing  not  from  the  length 
of  time  he  suffered,  nor  from  the  intensity  of  his  suffer- 
ings, but  from  the  dignity  of  the  sufferer.  Apostles  tell 
us,  ''  God  hath  purchased  the  Church  with  his  own 
blood" — ''the  Lord  of  glory  was  crucified" — "Christ 
through  the  Eternal  Spirit  offered  up  himself  unto  God" — 
that  "  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  cleanseth 
us  from  all  sin."  The  boundless  value,  the  infinite  worth 
of  the  God-man  is  derived  from  the  Dignity  of  His  per- 
son—" all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  dwelleth  in  him 
bodily." 


CHRIST   SUFFERED   FOR   US.  93 

IV.  What  did  Christ  suffer  under  Pontius  Pilate  1 
Answer :  He  suffered  the  wrath  of  God  against  us.  He 
endured  the  penalty  of  the  law  of  God.  He  satisfied 
Divine  Justice  by  the  sacrifice  of  Himself,  so  that,  as  the 
lamb  of  God,  he  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world. 

As  God  is  holy  and  just  and  good,  He  hates  sin. 
"  Thou  art  not  a  God  that  hath  pleasure  in  wickedness. 
Thou  hatest  all  workers  of  iniquity.  Evil  shall  not  dwell 
with  Thee  ;  the  foolish  shall  not  stand  in  Thy  sight ; 
Thou  shalt  destroy  them  that  speak  leasing."  "  And  the 
wrath  of  God  is  revealed  from  heaven  against  all  ungod- 
liness and  unrighteousness  of  men."  Here  the  wrath, 
and  the  revelation  of  the  righteous  judgment  of  God,  are 
joined  together  by  the  Apostle.  Now  as  God  is  a  holy 
God,  He  will  not  forgive  transgression  and  sin,  and  will 
by  no  means  clear  the  guilty,  unless  there  is  satisfaction 
rendered — His  law  magnified  and  honored.  And  this  is 
just  what  Christ  does  by  His  righteousness,  obedience, 
and  suffering.  God  vindicates  His  holiness  and  makes 
manifest  His  displeasure  against  sin  in  three  ways.  1.  He 
punishes  sin  in  the  believer' s  Surety.  He  is  the  propitia- 
tion for  our  sins.  2.  He  punishes  believers  themselves 
at  the  same  time  that  He  forgives  them.  Ps.  xcix.  8. 
3.  Sinners  impenitent  and  unbelieving,  rejecting  Christ, 
are  made  to  suffer  under  the  guilt  of  unpardoned  sin.  ''It 
therefore  became  Him,  for  whom  are  all  things,  and  by 
whom  are  all  things,  in  bringing  many  sons  unto  glory, 
to  make  the  captain  of  their  salvation  perfect  through 
sufferings."  Heb.  ii.  10.  And  in  Romans  iii.  25,  26: 
"Whom  God  hath  set  forth  to  be  a  propitiation  through 
faith  in  His  blood,  to  declare  His  righteousness — that  He 
might  be  just,  and  the  justifier  of  him  that  belie veth 
in  Jesus  " — "  who  is  the  end  of  the  law  for  righteousness 
to  every  one  that  belie  veth." 


94  "sirrrERED  uis^der  pontius  pilate." 

'T/ie  purpose  therefore  of  his  sufferings  is  to  Ibe  learned 
from  the  history  of  our  sin  and  misery. 

**  By  one  man  sin  entered  into  the  world,  and  death 
l3y  sin,  and  so  death  passed  upon  all  men,  for  that  all 
have  sinned."  The  sentence  on  all  men,  therefore,  is 
death:  ''For  in  the  day  thou  eatest  thereof,  thou  shalt 
surely  die."  It  is  true  our  first  parents  did  not  die,  that 
is,  their  mortal  life  did  not  end  the  moment  they  sinned, 
but  they  did  at  once  begin  to  die.  The  sentence  began 
to  be  executed.  They  became  mortal — liable  to  sickness, 
and  fell  under  the  sentence  of  death,  which  is  only 
delayed  in  its  execution ;  and  they  died  spiritually,  and 
so  became  subject  to  eternal  death.  And  this  is  pre- 
cisely our  situation.  ISTow  the  purpose  of  Christ's  suffer- 
ings and  death  is  to  redeem  us.  ' '  The  righteousness  of 
God,  which  is  by  faith  unto  all  and  upon  all  them  that 
believe,  being  justified  freely  by  His  grace  through  the 
redemption  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus  ;  whom  God  hath  set 
forth  to  be  a  propitiation,  through  faith  in  His  blood,  to 
declare,  I  say,  at  this  time  His  righteousness  for  the 
remission  of  sins  that  are  past,  through  the  forbearance 
of  God  ;  to  declare,  I  say,  at  this  time  his  righteousness : 
that  he  might  be  just  and  the  justifier  of  him  wl^ich 
belie veth  in  Jesus." 

The  cause  of  our  Lord's  sufferings,  therefore,  is  not 
to  be  found  in  any  shortcomings  of  His  own,  but  in  Ms 
substitution  for  His  people  ;  that  is,  the  wrath  of  God  was 
laid  on  Him  for  the  punishment  of  our  sins.  It  is  in  this 
sense  we  understand  the  Prophet,  saying:  "We  did 
esteem  him  stricken,  smitten  of  God,  and  afflicted — 
wounded  for  our  transgressions,  bruised  for  our  iniquities 
— despised  and  rejected  of  men  ;  a  man  of  sorrows  and 
acquainted  with  grief.  Surely  He  hath  borne  our  griefs 
and  carried  our  sorrows.    He  was  oppressed  and  He  was 


Christ's  manifold  suiteeen-gs.  95 

afflicted.  It  pleased  the  Lord  to  bruise  Him  and  to  make 
Ilis  soal  an  offering  for  sin.  Therefore  he  shall  divide  the 
spoil  with  the  strong ;  because  He  hath  poured  out  His 
soul  unto  death  ;  and  he  bare  the  sin  of  many,  and  made 
intercession  for  the  transgressors." 

Y.  What  constituted  the  sufferings  of  Christ?  His 
sufferings  began  with  his  human  life,  and  ended  with  it 
on  the  cross.  For  man's  sake  the  ground  was  cursed.  In 
sorrow  we  eat  of  it  all  the  days  of  our  life.  As  Christ 
suffered  for  us  as  our  Surety,  bearing  the  form  of  a  servant, 
and  appearing  in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh,  so  the  suffer- 
ings of  his  whole  life  are  to  be  taken  into  the  account  and 
collected  into  one  amount  and  laid  upon  Him.  TJiinTc  of 
his  sufferings  in  volunteering  to  come  and  die  for  us,  when 
He  emptied  himself  of  the  glory  which  He  had  with  the 
Father  before  the  world  was.  Then  think  of  his  infancy, 
his  circumcision^  flight  into  Egypt,  the  journey  through 
the  desert,  and  the  murder  of  the  children  of  Bethlehem. 
Think  of  his  private  life  as  the  son  of  the  carpenter 
Joseph,  to  whom  he  was  in  subjection  till  he  was  of  age. 
Think  of  his  public  life^  his  baptism,  temptation,  toil, 
preaching,  travelling,  working  miracles,  and  how  He  was 
persecuted,  misrepresented — his  life  hunted  by  the  Scribes 
and  Pharisees,  and  betrayed,  deserted,  apprehended,  and 
crucified  !  And  shall  we  visit  with  Him  the  garden  of 
Gethsemane,  after  eating  the  last  Passover  and  the  last 
supper  with  his  disciples  ?  Think  of  his  anguish  and 
sorrow  when  betrayed  and  forsaken,  insulted  and  mocked. 
Think  what  He  suffered  from  the  Jews  when  He  was 
falsely  accused,  unjustly  condemned,  cruelly  derided, 
thrice  denied  by  Peter.  Think  how  He  suffered  in  the 
judgment  hall  of  Pilate  and  before  Herod,  and  was  con- 
demned and  the  robber  Barabbas  preferred  before  him  ; 
and  how  He  was  torn  with  cruel  scourges,  crowned  with 


96  "suffered  under  pontius  pilate." 

thorns,  clothed  in  robes  of  mock  royalty,  and  hung  on  the 
cross  !  And  when  we  consider  also  that  all  these  suffer- 
ings He  took  voluntarily  upon  himself — that  He  knew 
them  all  beforehand — the  bitter  dregs  of  the  cup  He 
anticipated  from  the  beginning ;  and  then  consider  how 
repulsive  sin,  and  the  odious  sufferings  of  guilt,  must 
have  been  to  a  nature  so  pure  and  sensitive  as  was  the 
Holy  Sinless  One,  and  surely  we  are  ready  to  exclaim : 

"  0  how  He  loved  us  !  0  amazing  love ! 
0  for  this  love  let  rocks  and  hills 

Their  lasting  silence  break ; 
And  all  harmonious  human  tongues 

The  Saviour's  praises  speak." 

As  to  the  duration  of  our  Lord's  sufferings  it  is  not 
necessary  to  enlarge.  His  whole  human  life  was,  like 
ours  a  long  mortal  disease,  a  continual  death.  From  liis 
conception  he  was  stricken,  smitten  of  God  and  afflicted. 
The  shadows  of  the  cross  began  to  fall  upon  his  manger 
cradle.  For  us  He  was  presented  at  the  Temple  and 
circumcised,  and  for  us  He  was  baptized,  and  was  tempted 
in  the  wilderness ;  nor  did  He  cease  His  sufferings  until 
He  gave  up  the  ghost  on  the  cross. 

I  do  not  seek  here,  my  brethren,  any  novelties,  or 
claim  any  originality,  as  if  we  had  made  new  discoveries 
in  theology.  I  am  only  trying  to  present  you  with  as 
clear  an  exhibition  of  the  truths  believed  from  the  begin 
ning  as  I  can.  And  according  to  my  view,  an  abstract  of 
the  argument  for  the  truth  of  this  Article  of  our  Creed 
would  run  in  this  line  ;  namely, 

1.  We  have  historic  evidence  in  support  of  the  fact 
alleged,  both  from  the  Evangelists  and  from  cotemporary 
and  subsequent  profane  history.     The  existence  of  the 


PROOFS    OF   OUR    CREED.  97 

Christian  Church  itself,  from  the  period  of  the  crucifixion 
to  this  moment,  and  such  an  existence  and  such  a  history 
as  it  is,  is  no  mean  evidence — but  in  fact  a  living  miracle 
of  the  truth  of  the  Gospel  history,  embracing  the  miracu- 
lous birth  and  supernatural  sufierings  of  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth. You  must  remember  here  that  our  Lord's  enemies 
as  well  as  his  friends  confessed  and  believed  in  the  fact 
of  his  suffering  under  Pontius  Pilate,  and  that  his  enemies 
alleged  this  fact  as  a  reason  for  not  believing  in  him. 
They  rejected  Him  because  it  was  true  He  suffered  under 
Pontius  Pilate. 

2.  There  is  a  natural,  or  very  wide  spread  notion,  that 
suffering  either  procures  by  merit  or  purchase,  or  is  in 
some  other  way  efficiently  connected  with,  the  pardon  of 
sin.  It  is  not  material  now  to  speak  of  the  origin  of  this 
opinion.  It  is  quite  sufficient  that  it  prevails  and  has 
prevailed — namely,  that  the  suffering  of  victims,  animals 
sacrificed,  for  example,  was  in  some  way  effective  towards 
the  pardon  of  the  sins  of  the  persons  who  offered  them. 
If  Jesus  Christ  then  has  made  an  atonement  for  sin,  He 
must  have  suffered. 

3.  All  our  ideas  of  the  perfections  of  God  demand 
satisfaction  to  His  justice  before  there  can  be  pardon 
offered  to  the  sinner.  It  is  the  voice  of  all  heaven,  earth, 
and  hell,  that  there  can  be  no  remission  of  sins  without 
the  shedding  of  blood.  Blood  cannot  be  shed  without 
suffering.  It  behooved  Christ  therefore  to  suffer  under 
Pontius  Pilate. 

4.  The  promises  and  prophecies  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment concerning  the  Messiah  to  come  represent  Him  as 
a  suffering  Messiah.  The  seed  of  the  woman  was  to 
bruise  the  serpent' s  head,  but  the  serpent  was  to  bruise 
Ms  lied — and  so  in  the  Psalms  and  in  the  Prophets. 

7 


98  "suffered  undee  po:n^tius  pilate." 

5.  Jesus  Christ  foretold  liis  own  sufferings — making 
tlie  revelation  of  them  to  his  disciples  stronger  and  clearer 
as  they  became  able  to  bear  it,  and  as  the  time  approached 
for  Him  to  suffer  and  die.  He  was  a  true  prophet ;  his 
predictions  were  fulfilled. 

6.  Then,  in  the  next  place,  we  have  the  testimony  of 
the  Evangelists,  supported  by  profane  historians,  that 
Jesus  did  suffer  under  Pontius  Pilate. 

7.  Jesus,  after  his  resurrection,  speaks  of  his  suffer- 
ings— shows  his  wounds — and  his  Apostles  and  the  early 
Christians  all  thus  believed,  preached,  and  testified,  and 
many  of  them  died  as  martyrs  to  their  faith — martyrs  for 
the  truth  of  what  they  saw  and  heard. 

8.  The  miracles  of  the  day  of  Pentecost,  of  the 
planting  of  the  Church  in  the  first  ages,  and  the  success 
of  the  Gospel  in  the  world,  and  the  second  coming  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  and  his  judgment  of  the  world — all  imply  the 
truth  that  He  suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate,  but  is  now 
ascended  and  reigning  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father  as 
Lord  and  Christ.  The  truth  of  this  Article  then  rests 
partly  on  historical  documents  and  partly  on  theological 
reasons.  The  historic  evidence  is  overwhelming.  It  is  as 
strong  as  it  can  be  made.  And  besides,  all  the  theological 
reasons  that  require  satisfaction  to  be  made  to  the  justice 
of  God  in  order  that  sin  may  be  pardoned,  require  also  that 
Jesus  as  our  Mediator  should  suffer  for  us.  All  the 
Scriptures  that  speak  of  Him  as  a  High  Priest  to  make  an 
atonement  for  sin,  or  as  being  a  propitiation  for  us,  imply 
of  necessity  His  suffering  before,  during,  and  leading  to 
his  death  as  an  atonement. 

And  if  still  it  be  asked.  Why  did  Christ  suffer  under 
Pontius  Pilate?  our  answer  is,  *' to  satisfy  Divine  Justice 


WHY    CHEIST    SUFFERED.  99 

and  reconcile  us  to  God."  He  expiated  our  guilt.  He 
evinced  his  love  to  the  Father  and  to  us,  by  bearing 
the  wrath  of  God  due  to  us  on  account  of  our  sins. 
When  we  were  enemies  we  were  reconciled  to  God  by 
the  death  of  his  Son.  All  things  are  of  God,  who  hath 
reconciled  us  to  himself  by  Jesus  Christ.  '*God  was  in 
Christ  reconciling  the  world  unto  himself,  not  imputing 
their  trespasses  unto  them." 

''It  hath  pleased  the  Father, — ^having  made  peace 
through  the  blood  of  his  cross,  by  him  to  reconcile  all 
things  to  himself.""^  These  texts  must  now  suffice  as 
specimens  of  what  the  sacred  writers  teach  on  this  sub- 
ject. It  is  true  that  in  the  Scriptures  reconciliation  is 
ascribed  to  God  the  Father,  as  He  loves  us  and  deter- 
mines to  give  His  Son  to  die  for  us,  and  also  to  the  Son^ 
as  he  obeys  the  Father,  and  renders  satisfaction,  and 
intercedes  for  us  and  in  us,  and  believers  are  said  to 
reconcile  themselves  to  God  by  receiving  Jesus  Christ  as 
he  is  offered  in  the  Gospel. 

Again,  all  the  rites,  types,  and  texts  that  speak  of  and 
set  forth  Jesus  Christ  as  the  propitiation^  the  propitia- 
tory in  his  blood,  are  in  proof  of  Christ' s  sufferings  to  take 
away  sin.  The  essential  idea  of  atonement  is  covering  in 
order  to  an  agreement,  or  an  at-one-ment.  The  covering 
of  the  Ark  of  the  covenant  was  called  the  Mercy-Beat — 
firsts  because  it  covered  the  law,  and,  secondly^  because 
it  offered  mercy  to  the  believer.  And  hence  Christ  is 
himself  our  Mercy-Seat.  He  covers  our  sins  with  his  own 
perfect  righteousness,  so  that  they  may  not  condemn  us  in 
the  sight  of  God.     He  sprinkles  us  with  his  blood.     And 


*  Rom.  V.  10 ;  2  Cor.  y.  18,  T9f:-e^i^l9,  20, 


/; 


:^ 


100  "suffered    under   POKTIUS   PILATE." 

he  erects  a  throne  of  grace,  on  which  God  sits  to  hear  our 
prayers,  and  grant  us  pardon  and  eternal  life. 

Finally^  what  benefit  do  we  derive  from  the  suffer- 
ings of  Christ  under  Pontius  Pilate  %  "What  are  the  re- 
sults ?  Our  standards  generally  sum  up  saving  knowl- 
edge as  consisting  of  a  knowledge  of  our  misery,  deliver- 
ance from  it,  and  gratitude  for  this  deliverance.  See 
Eom.  vii.  24,  25. 

The  sufferings  of  Jesus  are  a  picture  of  our  misery 
from  the  evil  of  sin.  All  this  He  suffered  for  our  sins. 
How  awful  their  demerits,  when  such  punishment  was 
endured  by  God' s  own  Son  on  their  account !  If  such 
things  were  done  in  the  green  tree,  what  shall  be  done 
in  the  dry  ? 

How  should  we  Tiate  sin  f  It  was  the  sole  cause  of 
the  sorrows  of  our  Lord.  It  is  said,  you  know  [see 
Witsius],  and  correctly,  that  by  the  shadow  projected 
from  the  pyramids,  we  may  estimate  their  height.  So  i: 
is  by  Christ's  death  and  Christ's  sacrifice  we  should  esti- 
mate the  evil  of  sin  ;  and  by  what  sin  is,  we  may  estimate 
the  length,  and  depth,  and  breadth,  and  height  of  the 
atonement  through  which  we  may  obtain  forgiveness.  It 
was  our  sins  that  crucified  Jesus,  the  Lord  of  glory. 
Neither  Judas,  nor  the  Scribes,  nor  the  chief  priests  and 
rulers  of  the  people,  nor  the  Jewish  populace,  nor  Herod, 
nor  Pontius  Pilate  could  have  done  any  thing  against  the 
Son  of  God ;  neither  scourges  nor  thorns  nor  nails  would 
have  been  prepared  to  torment  him  ;  nor  w;ould  the 
prince  of  darkness  have  attacked  him  with  all  his  forces 
— unless  He  had  taken  upon  Himself  our  sins,  which 
could  not  be  exjDiated  in  any  other  way.  Whatever  then 
our  Lord  dislikes,  let  us  abstain  from.  What  He  com 
mands,  let  us  do.    Let  us  take  up  our  cross  and  cheerfully 


SYMPATHY    OF   OUE   HIGH   PRIEST.  101 

follow  Him.  He  has  set  us  an  example.  "The  chafe 
comes  not  by  wearing  chains,  but  feeling  them."  There 
are  many  great  truths  which  are  lost  amid  the  noise  and 
glittering  mazes  of  the  world.  It  is  only  among  the  iron 
facts  of  life  we  are  able  to  grind  them  out.  To  know 
what  poverty  is,  we  must  taste  it — we  must  try  its  temp- 
tations, grudges,  and  gnawing  shame — we  must  freeze 
with  it,  test  its  sleepless  hunger — our  own  crippled  backs 
must  acha  over  the  same  long  furrows,  or  bend  over  the 
same  straight  benches.  It  is  on  this  principle  our  great 
High  Priest  is  able  to  succor  us  when  tried.  ''  He  knows 
what  sore  temptations  mean.     He  has  felt  the  same." 

** — How  was  He, 
Tho  Blcssod  One,  made  perfect  ?    Why,  by  grief— 
The  fellowship  of  voluntary  grief — 
He  read  the  tear-stained  book  of  human  souls — " 

He  poured  out  his  soul  unto  death  for  us.  He  carried  our 
griefs — bore  our  sins.  Let  us  love  Him — believe  in  Him 
— live  and  die  for  Him  And  to  Him  be  all  the  glory, 
world  without  end.  Amen. 


102  JESUS   CHEIST   WAS   CRUCIFIED. 


YI 


JESUS    CHRIST    WAS    CRUCIFIED. 

•'  When  the  morning  was  come,  all  the  chief  priests  and  elders  of  the  people 
took  counsel  against  Jesus  to  put  him  to  death. 

"  And  when  they  had  bound  him,  they  led  Mm  away,  and  delivered  him  to 
Pontius  Pilate  the  governor. 

"And  Jesus  stood  before  the  governor :  and  the  governor  asked  him,  saying. 
Art  thou  the  King  of  the  Jews  ?    And  Jesus  said  unto  him,  Thou  sayest. 

"And  when  he  was  accused  of  the  chief  priests  and  elders,  he  answered 
nothing. 

"  Then  saith  Pilate  unto  him,  Hearest  thou  not  how  many  things  they  witness 
against  thee  ? 

"  And  he  answered  him  to  never  a  word ;  insomuch  that  the  governor  mar- 
velled greatly. 

"  Pilate  saith  unto  them,  What  shall  I  do  then  with  Jesus  which  is  called 
Christ  ?     They  all  say  unto  him,  Let  him  be  crucified. 

"  And  the  governor  said,  Why,  what  evil  hath  he  done  ?  But  they  cried  out 
the  more,  saying,  Let  him  be  crucified. 

"  Wlien  Pilate  saw  that  he  could  prevail  nothing,  but  that  rather  a  tumult 
was  made,  he  took  water,  and  washed  his  hands  before  the  multitude,  saying,  I 
am  innocent  of  the  blood  of  this  just  person  :  see  ye  to  it. 

"Then  answered  all  the  people  and  said,  His  blood  le  on  us,  and  on  our 
children. 

"  Then  released  he  Barabbas  unto  them :  and  when  he  had  scourged  Jesus, 
he  delivered  Mm,  to  be  crucified. 

"  Then  the  soldiers  of  the  governor  took  Jesus  into  the  common  hall,  and 
gathered  unto  him  the  whole  band  of  soldiers. 

"And  they  stripped  him,  and  put  on  him  a  scarlet  robe. 


KING    CLOVIS'    ZEAL.  103 

"And  wh3n  they  had  platted  a  crown  of  thorns,  they  put  it  upon  his  head, 
and  a  reed  in  his  right  hand:  and  thoy  bowed  the  knee  before  him,  and  mocked 
liim,  saying.  Hail,  King  of  the  Jews  1 

"  And  they  spit  upon  him,  and  took  the  reed  and  smote  him  on  the  head. 

*'  And  after  that  they  had  mocked  him,  they  took  the  robe  off  from  him,  and 
put  his  own  raiment  on  him,  and  led  him  away  to  crucify  him. 

"  And  as  they  came  out,  they  found  a  man  of  Gyrene,  Simon  by  name  :  him 
tliey  compelled  to  bear  his  cross. 

"And  wlien  they  were  come  unto  a  place  called  Golgotha,  that  is  to  say,  a 
place  of  a  skull, 

*'They  gave  him  vinegar  to  drink  mingled  with  gall:  and  when  he  had 
tasted  thereof,   he  would  not  drink. 

"  And  they  crucified  him,  and  parted  his  garments,  casting  lots :  that  it  might 
be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken  by  the  prophet ;  They  parted  my  garments  among 
them,  and  upon  my  vesture  did  they  cast  lots.  And  sitting  down  they  watched 
him  there ;  and  set  up  over  his  head  his  accusation,  this  is  jesus  the  king  OP 
THE  JEWS." — Matt,  ixvii.  1,  2,  11-14  and  22-37. 

It  is  written  of  Clovis,  the  first  king  of  France,  that 
when  he  heard  the  Bishop  of  Rheims  read  an  account 
of  the  crucifixion  of  our  Lord,  he  exclaimed,  laying  his 
hand  on  his  sword  :  "  Had  I  been  there  with  my  trusty 
Franks,  I  should  soon  have  dispatched  that  impious 
rabble."  Nor  is  it  improbable  that  there  are  many  now 
who  are  more  ready  to  draw  their  swords  for  the  name 
of  Jesus,  than  they  are  willing  to  live  for  Him  and  love 
their  fellow-men  for  His  sake.  It  is  desirable  for  us  to 
have  as  noble  a  feeling  for  and  sympathy  with  our  Lord 
as  the  founder  of  the  Frank  monarchy,  while  at  the  same 
time  we  should  evince  it  in  some  more  Christian-like  way. 
''They  mourn  the  dead  aright,  who  live  as  they  would 
have  us  do." 

St.  Paul,  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Philippians,  says  he 
counted  all  things  but  loss  for  the  excellency  of  the  know- 
ledge of  Christ  Jesus,  and  that  I  might  "  know  him,"  says 
he,  ''and  the  power  of  his  resurrection  and  the  fellowship 
of  his  sufferings,  being  made  conformable  unto  his  death  ; 


104  JESUS    CHRIST    WAS    CRUCIFIED. 

if  by  any  means  I  might  attain  unto  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead." 

In  considering  the  question  of  our  Lord's  sufferings 
under  Pontius  Pilate,  it  was  found  that  historically  the 
evidence  was  as  complete  as  it  could  be  in  the  nature  of 
the  case — that  there  is  no  counter  testimony,  no  conflict- 
ing or  contradictory  evidence — not  a  syllable.  "  The 
matter  of  fact  concerning  the  death  of  Christ,"  says 
Bishop  Burnet,  ''is  denied  by  no  Christian."  Even  the 
early  and  the  best  informed  Jews,  and  all  the  early  oppo- 
nents of  Christianity,  acknowledged  the  personal  exist- 
ence and  the  main  facts  in  the  life  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  as 
related  by  our  Evangelists.  Severus,  Celsus,  Porphyry 
and  Julian,  and  Gibbon  did  not  deny  the  substantial 
facts  reported  in  the  evangelical  memoirs  of  Jesus.  They 
endeavored  to  explain  them,  however,  in  such  a  way  as 
to  take  from  him  his  true  character.  His  manner  of  life. 
His  sufferings  and  death  on  the  cross,  were  not  only 
acknowledged  by  them,  but  used  as  an  argument  against 
his  claims  as  the  Messiah.  His  followers  were  bitterly 
reproached  with  his  sufferings  and  the  ignominy  of  his 
cross ;  and  yet  we  know  historically  that  they  gloried  in  it. 
They  did  not  deny,  nor  seek  to  cover  up  and  hide  from 
public  view,  the  sufferings  and  death  of  Jesus  Christ  on 
the  cross.  They  avowed  their  belief  in  Him  because  He 
"  suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate,  was  crucified,  dead  and 
buried."  Paul,  you  remember,  tells  Felix  and  Festus 
and  Agrippa  that  these  things  were  not  done  in  a  corner. 
He  appeals  in  his  discourses  to  the  facts  of  Jesus' 
life  and  death  as  well  known  and  uncontradicted.  And 
you  remember  his  determination  not  ''  to  know  any 
thing  among  the  Corinthians  save  Jesus  Christ  and 
Him  crucified."  The  Cross  of  Christ,  in  his  estima- 
tion,  was   the    centre    and  sum    of    all   true    religion. 


EREORS  REFUTED  BY  THE  CREED.         105 

**The  foundation  of  foundations  and  the  pillar  of  sacred 
wisdom." 

The  last  chapters  of  the  four  Gospels  give  us  so  plain 
and  full  an  account  of  our  Lord' s  sufferings  and  death  as 
scarcely  to  require  a  word  of  comment.  The  details  are 
familiar  to  you  all,  and  yet  they  cannot  fail  always  to  be 
deeply  interesting  to  you.  The  reality  of  our  Lord's 
sufferings  and  death  is  proven  by  the  prophecies  and 
types  of  the  Old  Testament,  by  his  own  predictions 
concerning  Himself,  and  by  the  preaching,  letters,  and 
discourses  of  the  Apostles,  and  by  all  the  theological 
reasonings  that  require  an  atonement  such  as  we  under- 
stand Christ  to  have  made  in  order  to  the  forgiveness  of 
sin.  This  Article  of  the  Creed  was  intended,  as  indeed 
were  all  the  other  Articles,  to  meet  and  deny  heretical 
opinions,  or  false  doctrines,  that  began  to  spread  in  the 
Church  even  in  the  first  ages.  As  some  denied  that 
Jesus  had  really  come  in  the  flesh — that  is,  denied  the 
reality  of  his  human  nature,  so  they  denied  the  reality  of 
his  sufferings  and  death. 

It  is  a  distinctive  statement  in  our  Creed  that  Jesus 
Christ,  who  was  conceived  by  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the 
womb  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  born  of  her,  and  who  suf- 
fered under  Pontius  Pilate,  loas  also  crucified^  dead  and 
buried,  for  the  following  reasons : 

First  A  theory  known  as  the  Sahellian  had  been  put 
forth,  declaring  that  the  sufferings  of  our  Lord  Jesus  were 
the  sufferings  of  the  Father  Almighty.  In  Church  history 
this  is  known  as  Patripassianism.  The  zeal  of  the  fol- 
lowers of  Sabellius  was  so  great  for  the  unity  of  the  God- 
head, as  they  understood  it,  that  they  contended  there  is 
but  one  person  in  the  Godhead,  and  consequently  that  it 
was  the  Father  himself  who  was  born  of  the  virgin  and 


106  JESUS   CHRIST   WAS    CRUCIFIED. 

suffered  on  the  cross.  They  believed  the  [ouffla]  substance 
of  the  Godhead  was  the  sole  property  of  the  Father, 
and  the  other  two  persons  of  the  Adorable  Trinity  were 
only  influences  or  energies  embodied  and  sent  forth  from 
him.  It  is  to  meet  this  view  that  the  Catechism  says, 
"There  is  but  one  only,  the  living  and  true  God;"  but 
that  ''  There  are  three  persons  in  the  Godhead ;  the 
Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and  these  three  are 
one  God,  the  same  in  substance,  equal  in  power  and 
glory."  And  for  the  same  purpose  the  Creed  aflirms,  it 
was  God's  only  Son,  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  who  suf- 
fered, was  crucified,  dead  and  buried. 

Again,  Secondly.  This  distinct  afiirmation  is  made  to 
deny  the  doctrine  of  Basilides  and  his  followers.  Basil- 
ides  was  a  disciple  of  Simon  Magus,  and  lived  in  the 
second  century,  and  taught  in  Egypt  and  Persia.  He 
said  that  our  Lord  suffered  only  in  semblance  and  not 
in  reality— that  it  was  really  Simon  the  Cyrenian,  who 
had  been  compelled  to  bear  his  cross,  that  was  crucified 
in  his  stead.  A  small  sect  called  Docetce  also  maintained 
this  opinion.  This  was  also  in  part  the  views  of  the 
Gnostics.  Mohammed  also,  in  the  Koran,  says  that  at 
the  last  hour  of  his  sufferings  Jesus  was  withdrawn  and 
caught  up  to  heaven,  and  a  Jew  was  crucified  in  his  stead. 
For  such  a  corruption  of  the  true  history,  there  is  of 
course  no  shadow  of  proof.  No  authority  is  even  offered. 
It  was  a  mere  idle  assertion.  Still  it  was  thought  desira- 
ble to  preserve,  in  a  well-selected  and  guarded  form  of 
words,  what  the  Church  believed  on  so  important  a  point. 
For  surely  no  part  of  the  Gospel  history  is  written  more 
plainly  than  the  account  of  our  Lord's  sufferings  and 
death.  For  the  Divine  Word  endured  all  things  in  the 
flesh.  His  Divinity  not  suffering,  but  giving  support  and 
worth  to  the  sufferings  He  endured.     For  in  the  one 


CRUCrFIXION   HEATHEN.  107 

Christ,  who  was  God  and  man, — truly  man,  and  yet  the 
fulness  of  the  Godhead  dwelling  in  him  bodily, — while 
that  which  was  born  of  the  woman  was  born  to  suffer 
and  did  suffer,  yet  it  was  impossible  for  the  Godhead 
himself  to  suffer.  Hence  we  may  say,  God  suffered  in  the 
liesh,  God  redeemed  us;  and  the  blood  of  Jesus,  God's 
only  Son,  may  be  called  the  blood  of  God,  shed  for  us ; 
but  we  may  not  and  do  not  say  the  Ineffable  Godhead 
suffered  in  the  flesh,  or  through  the  flesh.* 

.  In  order  that  we  may  have  this  subject  before  us  as 
clearly  as  possible,  I  propose  to  consider,  I.  The  mean- 
ing of  the  affirmation  made  in  the  Creed — was  crucified. 

And  here,  First.  It  is  not  necessary  to  prove  that  the 
literal  or  material  wooden  cross  did  not  exist  before  the 
death  of  Christ.  It  is  a  mistake  to  contend,  as  some  do, 
that  the  cross  is  original  with  Christianity.  Crucifixion, 
or  death  on  a  cross,  as  a  punishment  for  alleged  offences, 
was  not  Jewish  at  all,  but  a  Roman — a  heathen  one,  and 
not  peculiar  to  the  Romans.  It  was  practised  among  the 
Hindoos,  as  a  punishment  for  theft,  from  the  earliest 
period  of  their  history  ;  and  is  found  also  in  the  remotest 
times  among  the  Scythians,  Persians,  Syrians,  Egyptians, 
Greeks,  and  African  tribes,  and  is  still  in  use  among  the 
Mohammedans,  and  I  think  also  among  the  Chinese,  who 
do  not,  however,  nail  the  sufferer,  but  tie  him  to  the  cross 
to  be  tortured  to  death,  or  killed  in  some  other  way.f 

Secondly.  We  find  three  terms  in  use  among  the  Ro- 
mans by  which  crucifixion?i^  a  punishment  was  expressed : 
namely,  Patibulum,  Furca,  and  Crux.  These  terms  are 
sometimes  distinguished  by  good  Latin  writers,  and  some- 


*  See  Forbes  on  the  Niceno  Creed,  pp.  220,  221. 

\  See  word  Criicifixion  in  Encyclopaedia  Britan.  8th  ed. 


108  JESUS    CHEIST   WAS    CEUCIFIED. 

times  employed  indiscriminately.  Patibulum  was  the  cross 
with  one  beam  bifurcating,  resembling  our  capital  letter 
Y,  and  probably  has  its  name  from  its  two  spreading 
branches  or  hoYii^—paUentes^  the  lying  open  of  the  horns, 
from  patere^  to  stretch  apart.  And  hence  the  same  kind 
of  a  cross  was  called  Furca  from  its  resemblance  to  a  fork, 
an  instrument  familiar  in  husbandry.  Constantine  the 
Great  introduced  the  new  Patibulum^  that  is,  the  gibbet 
or  our  gallows,  on  which  the  malefactor  was  strangled  and 
not  nailed  to  the  wood.  The  form  of  this  new  Patibulum 
was  that  of  the  Greek  capital  letter  Pi,  or  nearly  like  our 
capital  H.  The  reason  for  changing  the  old  Patibulum 
into  the  new,  given  by  Constantine,  was,  that  it  was  not 
becoming  for  a  Christian  government  to  continue  the 
punishment  of  the  cross,  in  the  same  form  at  least  as  it 
was  anciently  used  by  the  Pagan  Romans.  The  more 
common  term  was  Crux^  which  is  our  English  Cross,  the 
form  of  which  was  not  always  the  same.  Sometimes  it 
was  like  the  capital  letter  X,  consisting  of  two  beams 
crossing  each  other  in  the  middle.  This  is  a  very  ancient 
form,  and  is  cdi'^ledL  Saint  Andrew'' s  Cross,  from  a  tradition 
that  he  was  crucified  on  a  cross  of  this  kind.  The  other 
and  more  frequent  form  made  use  of  resembles  our  capi- 
tal letter  T,  the  erect  or  middle  beam  rising,  however, 
a  little  above  the  cross-beam.  On  some  of  the  crosses  of 
this  kind  there  was  also  a  central  bracket  or  projection  to 
assist  in  keeping  the  body  from  falling  from  the  upright 
beam.  It  is  no  doubt  in  allusion  to  this  that  the  Latin 
poet  Mcecenas  is  quoted,  saying  : — 

"  Whate'er  th'  events  that  may  betide, 
Don't  fail  for  me  this  to  provide ; 
Even  though  I  share  the  dreadful  lot, 
On  the  sharp  cross  to  sit,  and  rot." 

All  crosses  were  not  exactly  of  the  same  size.     The 


ISTERO'S    AWEUL    CRUELTIES.  109 

higher  the  cross  the  greater  the  infamy,  or  supposed 
atrocity  of  the  crime  punished.  Accordingly  Suetonius 
tells  us  of  the  mockery  of  Galha^  who,  when  a  poor  vic- 
tim cried  out  for  relief,  protesting  that  he  was  a  Roman 
citizen,  and  appealed  to  the  laws  for  protection,  the 
Emperor  mocked  him  by  pretending  that  his  punishment 
should  be  mitigated  by  putting  him  on  a  much  higher 
cross,  and  also  by  painting  it  white.  Ordinarily,  how- 
ever, crosses  were  not  high,  for  the  sufferers  were  gene- 
rally fastened  to  them  without  ladders,  and  in  many  cases 
it  is  historically  in  evidence  that  the  dogs  and  jackals 
and  wolves  tore  out  and  devoured  the  entrails  of  persons 
crucified  as  they  hung  on  the  cross.  This  also  is  proven 
from  what  Suetonius  says  of  Nero,  who  was  certainly  as 
near  an  impersonation  of  the  fiend  of  hell  as  we  can  find 
in  history.  The  Roman  historian  says  that  Nero  bound 
a  number  of  young  men  and  girls  naked  to  crosses,  and 
then  clothed  himself  in  the  skin  of  a  wild  beast,  and 
came  rushing  out  upon  them  from  a  cave,  and  acted  upon 
them  all  the  fury  of  a  devouring  beast.  This  implies  that 
their  bodies,  as  they  were  fastened  to  the  cross,  must  have 
been  within  a  short  distance  of  the  ground,  probably  within 
about  four  feet  of  the  ground.  There  was  also  a  piece  of 
wood  usually  on  the  centre  of  the  transverse  beam,  to 
which  was  attached  a  statement  of  the  crime  for  which 
the  person  on  the  cross  was  put  to  death.  So  you 
remember  our  Lord's  accusation  was  set  upon  his  head: 


**  This  is  the  King  of  the  Jews." 


The  Greek  term  used  in  the  history  of  our  Lord's 
crucifixion  is  not  definite  as  to  the  form  of  the  cross.  It 
simply  denotes  a  beam  or  stake  of  wood  used  for  crucify- 
ing. But  the  general  belief  is  that  it  was  the  ordinary 
Roman  cross,  which  was  in  form  like  our  capital  letter  T, 
the  upright  beam  being  longer,  and  extending  below  the 


110  JESUS    CHRIST   WAS    CEUCIFIED. 

line  and  above  the  transyerse  beam.  Pictures,  monu- 
ments, coins,  allusions  in  the  early  Fathers,  especially 
TertuUian,  and  history,  prove,  I  think,  quite  conclusively 
that  this  was  the  form  of  our  Lord's  cross.  The  history 
of  the  pious  labors  of  the  Empress  Helena,  mother  of 
Constantine,  to  find  the  true  cross,  and  how  she  succeed- 
ed, is  it  not  written  in  the  books  at  great  length?  I 
hope,  however,  I  may  say  without  irreverence,  that 
I  do  not  attach  any  importance  to  the  story  of  the 
finding  of  the  true  cross  on  which  our  Saviour  was  cru- 
cified by  the  mother  of  Constantine.  The  learned  are 
divided  as  to  the  facts  of  the  life  of  the  Empress  Helena, 
and  generally  consider  the  story  of  the  finding  of  the 
cross  an  invention,  and  of  no  consequence.  The  only 
remark  I  have  to  make  concerning  it,  at  present,  is  this ; 
as  the  dead  body  was  granted  to  Joseph  of  Arimathea,  it 
is  probable  the  disciples  could  have  had  the  cross  also, 
and  would  have  taken  it  with  them  from  Jerusalem  to 
Pella,  when  they  fled,  according  to  the  warning  given 
them  by  our  Lord,  from  the  horrors  of  the  siege  by  the 
Komans.  If  they  did  not  take  it  with  them,  it  was  be- 
cause they  did  not  consider  the  mere  wood  on  which  He 
was  crucified  as  of  any  consequence.  And  if  they  did 
take  it  with  them,  it  would  hardly  be  found  in  Jerusalem 
again  in  the  time  of  Constantine.  The  material  cross  is 
certainly  of  no  advantage  to  the  Church.  It  is  not  the 
wood  of  the  true  cross,  but  Him  who  died  on  it  we  wor- 
ship. It  is  faith  in,  and  love  to,  and  service  for  Him  who 
was  crucified  that  avails  for  salvation. 

II.  From  these  short  notices  of  the  history  of  cruci- 
fying, as  a  punishment  for  alleged  crimes,  I  proceed  in 
the  SECOND  place  to  speak  briefly  of  the  Mode  of  Cruci- 
fixion, as  in  use  among  the  Romans  at  the  time  of  our 
Saviour's  death. 


JESUS   PREPARED   FOR   CRUCIFIXION.  Ill 

The  Mode  of  Crucifixion  deserves  our  attention  in 
several  particulars.  Three  things  were  customary  before 
fastening  tlie  person  to  the  cross :  'beating^  compelling 
the  person  to  be  crucified  to  carry  his  own  cross,  and 
stripping  him  of  his  clothes.  The  order  for  capital  pun- 
ishment among  the  Komans  in  our  Lord's  day  was  in 
these  terms  :  "  Go,  sergeant,  bind  the  hands,  beat,  muffle 
up  the  head,  hang  on  the  ignominious  tree ;"  or  thus : 
' '  Sergeant,  take  away,  strip,  beat,  chastise,  execute  all 
the  law  on  this  person."  Accordingly  Livy  says :  ''Be- 
ing scourged,  they  were  fastened  to  the  cross."  And 
Josephus  says,  at  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  ''the 
Jews  were,  in  the  first  place,  whipped  and  tortured" 
with  all  sorts  of  stripes,  and  then  crucified.  It  is  even 
said  they  ceased  to  crucify  because  they  could  get  no 
more  wood  for  crosses. 

The  books  prove  to  us  that  tJie  whipping  or  beating 
was  done  sometimes  with  rods,  and  sometimes  with  whips 
having  sharpened  birds'  claws  and  small  bones  or  pieces 
of  lead  attached  to  the  lashes  or  ends  of  the  whips.  This 
beating  was  sometimes  inflicted  on  the  road  to  the  place 
of  execution,  and  was  often  so  severe  that  the  suflerer 
perished  under  it  before  reaching  the  place  for  the  cruci- 
fixion. Sometimes  it  was  done  at  a  post  before  starting 
to  the  place  of  crucifixion.  This  scourging  was  one  of 
the  kinds  of  suffering  which  our  Lord  endured.  St. 
Matthew  says  :  "And  when  he  had  scourged  Jesus,  he 
delivered  him  to  be  crucified."  So  also  says  St.  MarJc, 
and  SL  John  says  the  scourging  was  inflicted  by  Pilate 
for  the  purpose  of  appeasing,  if  possible,  the  fury  of  the 
Jews,  hoping,  as  is  said  by  St.  LuJce,  that  having  chas- 
tised him,  the  Jews  would  consent  to  let  him  go.  Pilate' s 
weakness  and  his  desire  to  let  Jesus  go  is  seen,  firsts  in 
this — that  he  is  convinced  that  Jesus  is  innocent,  and  so 


112  JESUS    CHRIST    WAS    CRUCIFIED. 

repeatedly  declares.  Secondly.  He  hoped  that  the  sight 
of  Jesus  severely  scourged  would  melt  the  enraged  Jews, 
so  that  they  would  no  longer  demand  his  crucifixion  ;  and 
then,  Thirdly^  if  his  policy  did  not  succeed,  and  he  was 
compelled  on  expediency  to  yield  Jesus  to  the  populace 
to  be  crucified,  then  the  Roman  law  would  "be  observed 
in  first  scourging  him. 

The  second  thing  done,  according  to  Roman  custom,  to 
a  person  about  to  be  crucified,  was  to  compel  him  to 
carry  his  cross  to  the  place  of  execution.  They  did  not 
carry  the  condemned  to  the  fields  or  to  the  prison-yard  in 
a  wagon,  as  we  do,  to  be  executed,  but  required  the  male- 
factor to  carry  his  cross  to  the  place  where  he  was  to  die. 
This  was  a  part  of  his  punishment,  and  formed  a  part  of 
his  shame  and  disgrace.  Plutarcli  alludes  to  this  in  his 
Discourse  ^'on  the  slowness  of  the  Divine  Vengeance," 
saying,  as  the  malefactor  carries  forth  his  cross  on  his 
body,  so  every  one  by  his  wickedness  is  the  author  of  his 
own  calamities,  and  produces  out  of  his  own  bowels  his 
own  sorrows. 

Accordingly  our  Evangelists  tell  us  Jesus  tore  Ms 
cross  until  exhausted,  when  Simon  the  Cyrenian  was 
compelled  to  help  him.  This  help  seems  to  have  been 
granted  him,  however,  more  from  cruelty  than  out  of 
pity.  They  were  afraid  lest  he  should  faint  and  die  by 
the  way,  and  they  should  thereby  lose  the  satisfaction  of 
seeing  Him  expire  on  the  cross. 

Again,  Thirdly.  It  was  a  Roman  custom  to  crucify  mal- 
efactors naked— i^iQj  stripped  off  their  clothes.  The 
wording  of  the  law  required  the  condemned  to  die  on  the 
cross  "as  naked  as  he  was  born."  The  testimony  on 
this  subject  is  very  full ;  and  I  need  not  stop  to  show 


.  ADJUNCTS    OF   CRUCIFIXIOl^.  113 

how  all  these  particulars  are  found  in  the  history  of  our 
Lord's  crucifixion. 

III.  The  Crucifixion  itself.  It  is  evident,  I  think, 
that  the  cross  was  usually  planted  in  the  ground,  and 
raised  before  the  body  was  fastened  to  it.  This  explains 
the  forms  of  expression  which  we  find  so  often:  ''To 
ascend  the  cross;"  ''to  mount  the  cross;"  "to  climb 
the  cross ;"  "  to  be  lifted  up  on  the  cross." 

The  instalments  with  which  the  body  was  fastened  to 
the  cross  were  cords  or  nails,  generally  rugged  nails, 
such  as  we  usually  call  spikes,  used  for  the  purpose  not 
only  of  fixing  and  holding  the  body,  but  also  to  increase 
the  suffering.  The  hands  were  first  bound  with  cords, 
beginning  with  the  right  hand,  and  the  nails  driven 
through  the  palm  of  the  hand,  or  the  wrist,  and  then  the 
feet  were  stretched  out  and  transfixed  in  the  same  man- 
ner—sometimes crossed,  so  that  the  same  spike  transfixed 
both,  and  sometimes  with  a  distinct  spike  to  each  foot, 
and  sometimes  only  tied  across. 

Much  ingenuity  was  exercised  in  making  the  position 
of  the  body  of  the  criminal  as  painful  as  possible.  The 
most  usual  posture  was  with  the  arms  extended  at  right 
angles  from  the  body,  as  nearly  as  possible,  with  the  feet 
hanging  down  in  front  of  the  upright  beam.  Sometimes 
the  posture  was  inverted,  and  the  head  was  downwards 
towards  the  earth,  as  Seneca  expressed  it.  It  is  said  St. 
Peter  was  crucified  in  this  posture,  at  his  own  request, 
because,  he  said,  he  was  not  worthy  to  die  in  the  same 
way  his  Lord  had  suffered. 

Remlings  were  common  after  the  body  was  fastened  to 
the  cross.  Dying  on  the  cross  was  full  of  pain  and 
shame.  Death  Avas  brought  on  by  various  causes.  Some- 
times it  was  occasioned  by  the  loss  of  blood  gradually 


114  JE3US    CIIEIST    WAS    CRUCIFIED. 

flowing  from  tlie  wounds  made  by  the  nails  and  by  the 
scourging  ;  sometimes  the  unfortunate  sufferers  would 
live  long  enough  on  the  cross  to  die  by  hunger  and  thirst, 
or  to  be  devoured  by  birds  or  beasts,  and  sometimes 
they  were  killed  by  being  pierced  with  a  sword  or  a 
spear,  and  sometimes  burned  with  fire.  Instances  of  all 
these  kinds  are  easily  found  in  history.  The  Evangelists 
tell  us  that  the  legs  of  the  thieves  were  broken,  and 
Christ's  body  was  pierced.  All  the  particulars  required 
in  the  Roman  crucifixion  are  found  in  the  history  of  our 
Lord' s  death.  He  was  beaten^  made  to  carry  Ms  cross 
without  the  gates,  and  v^as  stripped  of  his  clothing.  He 
was  lifted  up  on  the  cross,  and  subjected  to  the  bitter  re- 
vilings  of  Jews  and  Gentiles,  and  the  soldiers  mocked 
him,  coming  to  him  and  offering  him  vinegar,  and  the 
customary  guard  was  also  there, — ''the  soldiers  sitting 
watched  him  there." 

Death  on  the  cross  was  distinguished  as  the  most 
paiiifvl  and  the  most  ignominious  kind  of  punishment. 
Anciently,  it  was  only  the  meanest  and  the  most  abandoned 
persons  that  were  condemned  to  die  on  the  cross.  Rob- 
bers, assassins,  and  slaves  guilty  of  the  worst  offences — 
''monsters  in  human  shape,"  as  Witsius  says,  "only 
were  candidates  for  the  detested  cross."  Before  a  Roman 
citizen  could  be  subjected  to  this  punishment,  he  had  to 
be  degraded  by  servile  stripes  and  deprived  of  the  rights 
of  a  freeman,  just  as  a  priest  or  ecclesiastic  in  Papal 
countries  must  be  unfrocTced  before  the  civil  law  can 
punish  him.  Crucifying  was  synonymous  with  the 
severest  suffering — our  word  excruciating  is  derived 
from  it.  And  Cicero  in  his  impeachment  of  Yerres,  who 
had  crucified  a  Roman  citizen,  says  that  "crucifixion 
was  the  most  cruel  and  terrible  of  all  punishments,  such 
as  no  man  should  ever  see,  or  hear,  or  think  of."     And 


THE   IGNOMINY    OF   THE   CROSS.  115 

Horace  more  than  once  speaks  of  tlie  severity  of  the 
punishment  of  whipping  and  scourging  among  the 
Romans:  "To  be  cut  by  the  terrible  whip  and  to  be 
whipped  to  death."  And  when  we  apprehend  the  fact 
that  there  are  many  nerves  and  tendons  in  the  hands  and 
feet,  and  consider  that  the  wounds  from  the  scourging 
were  left  open,  and  the  action  of  the  air,  wind,  and  sun- 
shine on  such  fresh  open  wounds,  and  then  remember  the 
transfixing  of  the  feet  and  the  nailing  of  the  hands  with 
rugged  spikes,  and  that  the  weight  of  the  body  was 
chiefly  sustained  on  these  open  and  distended  wounds  in 
the  expanded  limbs,  and,"  still  more,  that  the  blood  under 
such  circumstances  was  forced  in  an  unnatural  quantity 
on  the  brain  and  stomach,  then  we  may  perhaps  begin 
to  have  some  idea  of  the  painfulness,  the  awful  painful - 
ness  of  death  by  crucifixion. 

Even  in  the  law  of  Moses  it  is  said :  He  that  is  hanged 
is  accursed^  a  curse  of  God^  which  St.  Paul  applies  to 
Jesus.  Deut.  xxi.  22,  23,  quoted  Gal.  iii.  13.  Here  it 
may  be  proper  to  remark,  that  although  crucifixion  was 
not  a  Jewish  mode  of  punishment,  yet  the  Jews  were  in 
the  habit  of  hanging  the  dead  body  on  a  gibbet  or 
gallows.  This  I  illustrated  to  some  length  in  my  Lectures 
on  Esther,  in  the  death  and  disgrace  of  Haman.  Ordi- 
narily the  Jews  put  to  death  either  by  stoning,  burning,  or 
strangling,  or  with  the  sword  or  battle-axe.  And  after 
death,  in  order  to  let  the  people  see  that  the  offender  was 
really  dead,  his  body  was  exposed  by  hanging  on  a  gal- 
lows. Why,  then,  was  peculiar  infamy  attached  to 
Jianging  on  the  cross  f  May  we  say  with  Witsius  that  God 
was  pleased  thus  to  brand  this  kind  of  punishment  with 
peculiar  infamy,  because  the  sin  of  our  first  parents  had 
relation  to  a  tree  f  Is  every  one  hanged  a  curse,  accursed^ 
of  God,  to  remind  us  of  the  fatal  tree  where  the  Divine 


116  JESUS    CHRIST   WAS    CRUCIFIED. 

wrath,  was  first  kindled  against  our  race  ?  And  is  it  for 
this  reason  that  the  Cross  has  become  the  symbol  of  our 
deliverance  from  the  curse  ?  Moses'  law  did  not  mean 
that  the  simple  hanging  on  the  cross  of  the  body  of  a  per- 
son, guilty  or  innocent,  penitent  or  impenitent,  neces- 
sarily excluded  him  altogether  from  the  mercy  of  God, 
but  it  did  signify,  and  was  a  memorial  of  the  fact,  that 
the  only  hope  of  mankind  escaping  from  the  curse  of  the 
sin  that  was  committed  by  disobedience  in  eating  of  the 
forbidden  fruit  of  a  tree,  rested  in  the  sufferings  of  God's 
own  Son  on  the  Cross,  who  would  come  and  die  in  the  ful- 
ness of  time  to  redeem  us  from  the  curse  of  the  law. 
''Christ  hath  redeemed  us  from  the  curse  of  the  law, 
being  made  a  curse  for  us ;  for  it  is  written,  Cursed  is 
every  one  that  hangeth  on  a  tree." — >S'^.  Paul.  To  hang 
on  a  tree  among  the  Jews  was  literal,  as  it  is  now  in  rude 
and  lawless  districts,  as  the  branches  of  trees  were  used 
for  gibbets  or  a  gallows  ;  and  as  wood  is  part  of  a  tree, 
so  the  beams  or  stake  used  for  crucifying  was  also  called 
a  tree. 

The  curse  of  Jianging  on  the  tree,  in  Paul' s  mind,  was 
emphatic,  for  it  was  a  painful  death,  a  shameful  death,  a 
lingering  death,  amid  the  jibes  and  scoffs  of  the  profane, 
and  such  a  death  as  only  the  lowest  and  the  vilest  could 
suffer  among  the  Romans. 

I  believe  that  Jesus  Christ,  God's  only  Son,  was  cru- 
cified and  dead,  because  this  is  implied  in  all  the  types 
that  speak  of  Him  as  a  sacrifice.  It  was  thus  He  finished 
the  work  committed  to  him.  He  laid  down  his  life  for 
Ids  sheep.  He  laid  it  down  voluntarily,  and  he  did  it 
2)lously,  offering  up  prayers  and  supplications,  and  with 
perfect  peace  and  composure  committing  his  soul  to  his 
Father.  "Father,  into  thy  hands  I  commend  my  spirit." 
The   Paschal  Lamb,  Isaac,  and  the    Jewish   altars,  all 


WHY   CHEIST   DIED    ON   A   CROSS.  117 

preached  this  doctrine.  The  reasons,  then,  why  our  Lord 
was  put  to  death  on  the  cross,  may  be  stated  in  this 
way  :— 

1.  It  was  predicted  the  Messiah  should  so  suffer  ;  the 
types  proclaimed  the  same  thing  ;  He  himself  foretold  his 
own  sufferings,  including  crucifixion. 

2.  Man's  first  disobedience,  ''that  brought  death  into 
the  world  and  all  our  woe,"  was  about  a  tree.  And  it 
pleased  God  that  the  atonement  by  which  pardoned  sin- 
ners may  regain  Paradise  should  be  finished  on  a  tree. 

3.  As  Jesus  was  the  Mediator,  the  Messiah  for  Gen- 
tiles as  well  as  for  Jews,  so  it  was  requisite  He  should 
die  under  Jewish  as  well  as  Gentile  law.  But  how  could 
this  be  brought  about  ?  There  were  only  four  methods 
known  to  the  Mosaic  law  for  capital  punishment,  namely : 
firsts  slaying  with  the  sword,  but  this  involved  no  dis- 
grace ;  secondly,  stoning,  but  this  would  break  his  bones, 
which  was  not  to  be  done  to  the  Messiah  ;  thirdly,  hurnir 
ing,  but  this  could  not  be  done,  for  then  the  flesh  of  the 
great  Paschal  Lamb  would  not  have  remained  to  be  the 
food  of  hjs  people ;  fourthly,  strangulation,  but  then 
this  would  have  rendered  his  flesh  unclean.  How,  then^ 
was  Jesus  to  die  ?  The  accusation  against  him  under  the 
Jewish  law  was  blasphemy,  because  He  made  himself 
equal  to  God  by  calling  himself  the  Son  of  God.  The 
punishment  for  this  was  death  by  stoning.  But  they  had 
not  the  power  to  put  any  one  to  death  according  to  Jew- 
ish law.  This  indictment,  therefore,  fails,  and  the  offence 
made  available  was  a  political  one,  that  he  claimed  to  be 
a  king,  and  was  therefore  Caesar's  enemy  and  rival.  The 
superscription  over  his  head  on  the  cross  proves  that  the 
procuring  cause  of  his  death,  according  to  the  judgment 
rendered  against  him,  was  that  he  claimed  to  be  the  king 


118  JE3US    CHRIST    WAS    CRUCIFIED. 

of  the  Jews,  On  this  charge  he  was  condemned  to  suffer 
Roman  punishment,  which  was  to  be  crucified.  And  this 
kind  of  a  death  meets  all  the  prophecies  concerning  the 
sufferings  of  the  Messiah.  It  was  necessary  He  should 
die  from  the  shedding  of  his  blood,  and  that  He  should 
die  in  a  conspicuous  and  open  manner  ;  and  that  his  suf- 
ferings should  be  with  such  agony,  and  under  such  shame 
as  would  properly  express  the  wrath  of  God  against  sin  ; 
and  that  He  should  die  on  a  tree,  as  one  under  the  curse 
of  God.  All  these  requisites  are  found  in  his  crucifixion, 
and  found  only  there. 

In  bringing  this  discourse  to  a  conclusion,  I  wish,  my 
dear  hearers,  to  say  : 

I.  I  have  not,  and  do  not  consider  it  important  to  dwell 
on  the  explanation  and  proofs  of  this  article  of  our  holy 
religion,  because  I  suppose  that  any  of  you  are  in  danger 
of  believing  SabelUus^  the  Egyptian  philosopher  of  the 
third  century,  or  of  following  Basilides,  the  disciple  of 
Simon  Magus,  or  that  you  are  about  to  adopt  the  Koran  ; 
but  I  am  aware  that  while  the  forms  of  error  are  changed, 
that  their  restatements  are  quite  as  dangerous  as  the  old 
ones,  and  often  much  more  so,  because  the  restatement 
embodies  all  the  essential  error  of  the  old  one,  but  in  a 
more  subtle  and  plausible  form.  I  believe  that  the  Son 
of  God,  having  taken  man's  nature,  "truly  suffered,  was 
crucified,  dead  and  buried,  to  reconcile  His  Father  to  us, 
and  to  be  a  sacrifice,  not  only  for  original  guilt,  but  also 
for  actual  sins  of  men."  Here  is  a  great  vital  purpose  in 
view.  I  do  not  see  any  way  to  be  saved  unless  this  Article 
is  true.  I  know  the  Deist,  the  Socinian,  and  all  who  deny 
the  Divinity  of  our  Lord,  think  but  little  of  this  Article. 
Those  who  deny  that  there  is  any  necessity  for  a  propitia- 
tory sacrifice,  or  that  God  had  need  to  be  reconciled  to 
man,  may  adopt  the  opinions  of  the   Docetce  or  of  the 


CHRIST   A    SACRIFICE   FOR    SIN,  119 

Koran,  and  deny  that  our  Lord  truly  suffered  and  was 
really  crucified.  It  may  content  them  to  say  that  as  it  was 
man  who  was  at  enmity  with  God,  and  not  God  with  man, 
that  Jesus  had  only  to  come  and  set  an  example,  and  call 
men  to  repentance,  and  then  be  recalled  to  heaven  with- 
out really  suffering  and  dying.  This  would  be  more 
consistent  in  our  humble  opinion  than  to  hold  to  the  reality 
of  his  death,  and  yet  deny  that  his  blood  was  shed  for  the 
remission  of  sins,  and  in  order  to  appease  the  wrath  of 
God.  We  can  see  no  way  to  save  sinners  but  by  recon- 
ciling the  justice  of  God  with  his  mercy.  Justice  calls  for 
wrath  on  the  sinner  ;  Mercy  pleads  for  pardon.  To  recon- 
cile Justice  and  Mercy ^  to  punish  sin  and  yet  forgive, 
the  sinner  being  penitent  and  believing,  God  was  pleased 
to  ordain  the  sacrifice  of  His  Son  ;  and  in  order  to  tliis  He 
sent  His  Son,  made  of  a  woman  and  under  the  law,  con- 
ceived of  the  Holy  Ghost,  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  and 
suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate. 

And  in  support  of  this  view  you  will  remember  many 
passages  of  Scripture  that  speak  expressely  of  reconci- 
ling God  to  us.     For  example,  2  Cor.  v.  19. 

You  know,  also,  that  there  are  many  texts  that  tell  us 
of  the  wrath  of  God  against  sinful  men,  illustrated  by  the 
expulsion  from  Eden,  by  the  Hood,  the  destruction  of  the 
cities  of  the  Plain,  the  Canaanites  and  the  history  of  the 
Jews,  and  in  fact  of  all  ancient  nations. 

And  the  same  thing  is  proven  expressly  and  distinctly 
by  the  Jewish  sacrifices.  It  is  not  necessary  for  my 
argument  to  prove,  as  I  believe,  that  sacrifice  was  at  first 
and  originally  a  divinely  instituted  rite,  for  even  if  it  were 
devised  in  the  first  instance  by  man,  still,  as  sacrifices  were 
sanctioned  by  the  Almighty  and  made  a  type  of  Christ,  so 
the  purpose  of  sacrifices  remains  unchanged,  and  that 


120  JESUS   CHRIST    WAS    CRUCIFIED. 

purpose  certainly  was  to  deliver  from  the  wrath  of  God, 
There  was  and  there  is  an  opinion ;  almost  or  quite 
universal,  that  in  some  way  sacrifices  could  and  did  turn 
away  the  wrath  of  God.  The  Passover  was  expressly 
appointed  and  made  to  represent  the  turning  away  of  the 
wrath  of  God  from  the  Israelites  when  it  fell  heavily  upon 
the  Egyptians.  And  then  we  find  in  the  books  of  Moses 
the  most  minute  and  painful  directions  for  those  who  have 
sinned  as  to  how  they  may  offer  a  sacrifice  that  shall  avail 
as  an  atonement  for  their  sins.  Whether  it  was  a  priest, 
a  prince,  or  any  one  of  the  people,  he  was  to  bring  a 
victim,  confess  his  sins  upon  its  head,  and  then  slay  it  as  a 
sin-offering.  The  same  thing  is  illustrated  in  the  services 
appointed  for  the  day  of  expiation,  when  the  high  priest 
made  an  atonement  first  for  himself,  and  then  for  the 
people  ;  and  also  of  the  scape-goat,  which  was  offered  at 
the  same  time,  the  sins  of  the  people  were  confessed  on 
his  head.  Now  the  Jews  looked  on  these  sacrifices  as 
strictly  propitiatory.  And  the  heathen  made  the  same 
confession  of  faith  by  their  sacrifices ;  and  especially  in 
times  of  peculiar  danger,  when  they  went  so  far  as  to 
resort  to  human  sacrifices,  hoping  to  propitiate  the  gods 
by  the  noblest  victims.  And  as  the  terms  used  by  the 
sacred  writers  to  describe  the  death  of  Christ  are  taken 
from  the  Jewish  sacrifices,  these  sacrifices  must  have  been 
types  of  the  death  of  Christ,  and  his  death  must  therefore 
be  regarded  as  propitiatory.  He  was  led  as  a  lamb  to  the 
slaughter.  He  is  called  the  Lamb  of  God — the  Lamb 
slain — a  Lamb  without  blemish  and  spot.  And  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  expressly  compares  the  priesthood 
of  Aaron  with  that  of  Christ,  and  explains  that  whereas 
the  Aaronic  priest  offered  the  blood  of  bulls  and  goats, 
which  could  not  take  away  sin,  that,  on  the  other  hand, 
Christ  offered  not  the  blood  of  others  but,  his  own  blood — 
offered  himself  to  bear  the  sins  of  many  ;  and  so  put  away 


SPECIA.LITIES    OF   HIS    CRUCIFIXIOIf.  121 

sin  by  the  sacrifice  of  Himself.  Under  the  law,  without 
the  shedding  of  blood  there  was  no  remission,  and  so  it  is 
under  the  Gospel ;  but  here  it  is  the  blood  of  God's  dear 
Son  that  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin. 

II.  It  should  be  observed  that  our  Lord's  sufferings 
on  the  Cross  were  attended  with  some  notable  advan- 
tages :  namely,  it  was  public — everybody  knew  of  his 
crucifixion  ;  and  as  he  was  three  hours  on  the  cross,  there 
was  sufficient  time  to  take  note  of  his  sufferings  and 
death,  and  so  also  there  was  time  and  opportunity  for 
him  to  show  his  pity  upon  the  penitent  malefactor  at 
His  side,  and  to  manifest  his  heavenly  disposition,  and 
pour  forth  His  fervent  prayer  for  His  murderers,  and 
commend  his  spirit  to  his  Father.  It  thus  pleased  God, 
by  his  Providence,  so  to  order  the  crucifixion  that  the 
course  and  manner  of  our  Lord's  death  might  be  conspic- 
uous, and  every  reasonable  excuse  for  unbelief  concern- 
ing it  be  taken  away.  St.  Paul  declared  before  King 
Agrippa  that  the  main  facts  of  the  Gospel  were  open  and 
known  to  all  the  world.  These  things  were  not  done  in 
a  corner^  or  secretly.  And  our  Lord  himself  boldly 
declared  to  His  accusers :  I  spoke  freely  to  you  and  to 
the  world.  I  taught  publicly  in  your  synagogues  and 
in  the  Temple,  and  in  secret  have  I  done  nothing.  And 
as  He  had  lived  and  taught,  so  He  died.  As  Moses 
lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the  wilderness  on  a  pole  in  a 
conspicuous  place,  so  was  the  Son  of  Man  lifted  up  on 
the  Cross,  that  He  might  draw  all  men  unto  Him,  and 
that  whosoever  believeth  on  Him,  thus  crucified,  should 
be  saved. 

III.  Nor,  thirdly,  is  it  improper  to  say  that  his 
posture  on  the  cross  was  emblematic  of  the  design  of  his 
death — signifying  his  Infinite  Love.     His  arms  were  ex- 


122  JE5US    CHRIST   WAS    CRUCLFIED. 

tended  signifying  the  comprehensiveness  of  his  love,  embra- 
cing all  mankind,  and  showing  how  earnestly  He  sought 
and  entreated  them  to  be  reconciled  to  God.  The  Cross 
was  as  it  were  his  pulpit,  from  which,  by  his  streaming 
blood  and  expiring  groans  when  He  gave  up  his  spirit, 
He  calls  men  to  repentance,  and  preaches  free  grace  and 
oifers  remission  of  sins.  JSTor  was  there  ever  a  throne 
that  taught  such  humility  blended  with  the  most  exalted 
dignity  as  the  Cross  of  Jesus.  On  the  Cross,  He  was 
encircled  with  rays  of  infinite  glory,  yet  sutlering  the 
acutest  pain,  the  most  awful  agony  and  the  deepest  shame 
on  our  account.  But  it  was  then  as  a  glorious  conqueror, 
having  spoiled  principalities  and  poicers^ — the  powers 
of  hell,  of  darkness,  sin,  and  death, — He  made  a  show 
of  them,  openly  triumphing  over  them  upon  His  Cross. 
Never  was  there  such  a  triumphal  column  as  the  Cross. 
Never  were  such  trophies  hung  on  any  triumphal  arch  as 
those  of  Jesus  when  He  hung  on  the  tree.  There  the 
worlds  with  all  its  counterfeit  pleasures  and  bewitching 
charms,  was  held  up  defaced  and  worthless.  Henceforth 
the  believer  says,  the  world  is  crucified  to  me,  and  I  am 
crucified  to  the  icorld.  And  here  too  our  sins  are 
exposed  as  His  trophies.  They  are  abolished  in  His  flesh 
and  slain  upon  His  Cross,  so  that  the  handwriting  of 
ordinances  that  condemned  us  was  nailed  to  His  Cross, 
and  our  bonds  cancelled  and  our  debts  paid. 

And  so  the  old  grim  monster,  ''  the  terror  of  kings  and 
King  of  Terrors,"  Death  itself,  hangs  gasping  and  dying 
on  His  Cross.  Here  we  see  Death  with  its  sting  plucked 
out  and  all  its  terrors  quelled,  and  the  grave  no  longer 
claiming  the  victory. 

It  is  thus  we  may  understand  St.  Paul' s  words :  coii- 
formdble  to  his  death — planted  together  with  him  in  the 
likeness  of  his  death — crucified  together  with  Christ ; 


BEHOLD  now  HE  LOVED  US  !  123 

having  our  old  man  crucified  together  A^ith  him,  that  the 
body  of  sin  may  be  destroyed,  so  that  we  may  no  longer 
serve  sin — for  they  that  are  Christ's  have  crucified  the 
flesh  with  the  passions  and  lusts  thereof. 

I  know  not  where  to  find  any  thing  equal  to  the  word 
of  ilie  Cross  ^  which  is  the  power  of  God  to  sal  cation,  for 
exciting  us  to  our  duty.  Does  it  not  inflame  our  hearts 
with  love  to  think  of  our  Lord' s  cruel  sufferings  for  us  1 
How  He  was  despised,  and  endured  the  shame  and  the 
pain  of  tlie  Cross !  What  should  we  not  be  willing  to 
endure  and  do  for  Him,  who  died  for  us  ?  What  greater 
encouragement  can  we  have  to  hope  for  mercy  from  God 
than  this,  that  He  spared  not  His  own  Son,  but  delivered 
Him  up  to  the  sufferings  of  such  a  death  for  us  ?  How 
can  we  have  higher  evidence  of  God's  love  towards  us 
than  this  ?  Is  it  not  the  heart  of  God  we  see  yearning 
over  us  in  the  dying  agonies  of  His  Son  on  the  Cross  % 

How  great  a  horror  should  sin  excite  in  us,  seeing 
that  it  was  for  sin  Jesus  thus  died  !  How  much  should 
we  love  Him  who  voluntarily  yielded  himself  to  such  a 
death  for  us !  With  what  readiness  should  we  give  up  the 
world  and  devote  ourselves  to  His  service  !  With  what 
patience  should  we  bear  suffering  and  affliction,  bereave- 
ment and  pain,  seeing  he  has  suffered  for  us,  and  endured 
far  more  than  we  are  capable  of  feeling  !  And  with 
what  confidence  should  we  accept  of  the  offer  of  mercy  ! 
seeing  that  it  hath  pleased  God  to  bruise  Him  and  put  Him 
to  grief  in  our  stead  !  Oh  I  how  earnestly  should  we  flee 
to  the  Refuge  set  before  us  by  His  atonement !  And 
surely,  if  we  neglect  so  great  a  salvation  there  will  be  no 
escape  for  us.  But  if  we  come  unto  Him,  He  will  in  no 
wise  cast  us  out. 


124  god's   only   SOIf   OUE   "dead   CHRIST." 


VII. 

GOD'S    ONLY    SON"    OUR    "DEAD    CHRIST." 

The  evening  of  last  Lord's  Day  we  contemplated 
Christ  as  Crucified  on  a  Roman  cross  under  sentence 
of  Pontius  Pilate,  the  Roman  governor.  This  evening, 
if  the  Lord  will,  we  are  called  to  behold  Christ  dead. 
*' And  at  the  ninth  hour  Jesus  cried  with  a  loud  voice, 
saying,  Eloi,  Eloi,  lama  sabachthani?  which  is  being 
interpreted.  My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken 
me  ?  And  Jesus  cried  with  a  loud  voice,  and  gave  up 
the  ghost."  In  Mark  xv.  88,  39;  Matth.  xxvii.  50-57; 
Luke  xxiii.  46  ;  John  xix.  30-42. 

To  say  that  these  passages  of  the  sacred  writers  con- 
cerning the  last  hours  of  Jesus  can  be  explained  away,  so 
as  not  to  mean  that  Jesus  really  died  on  the  Cross,  is  to 
say  they  have  no  meaning  at  all.  I  hope  you  will  here 
observe,  (1.)  The  promises  and  prophecies  of  the  Old 
Testament,  the  rites,  and  types,  and  sacrifices  of  the 
Mosaic  dispensation,  contemplate  and  require  that  the 
Messiah  should  suffer^  be  crucified^  and  die  from  cruci- 
fixion on  the  Cross.  (2.)  The  Evangelists  give  us  a  narra- 
tive of  events  leading  to  his  crucifixion,,  and  of  the 
results  that  followed  ;  and,  (3.)  This  narrative  has  been 
received  by  all  Christians  from  the  time  the  records  were 
made — which  was  soon  after  the  events  occurred — to  this 
day  as  a  true  history.    It  is  in  evidence  also,  (4.)  That  our 


BEHOLD    THE   MAN  !  125 

history  contains  an  account  of  things  that  were  most 
surely  believed  at  the  time  they  are  alleged  to  have 
taken  place,  both  by  friends  and  enemies.  Our  Lord's 
enemies  believed  that  He  really  died  on  the  Cross,  and 
his  friends  and  followers  were  so  certain  of  the  reality  of 
his  death,  that  they  prepared  him  for  his  burial,  and  did 
actually  lay  him  in  a  tomb.  The  truth  of  this  clause  of 
this  Article  in  our  Creed  is  believed  by  us,  then,  (1.)  Be- 
cause the  other  Articles  being  proved  to  be  true,  this  one 
is  true  also.  (2.)  It  is  believed  distinctly  on  account  of 
the  tradition  of  the  Church  concerning  His  death  both 
before  and  subsequent  to  the  crucifixion.  (3.)  The  direct 
testimony  of  the  narratives.  (4.)  All  the  theological  argu- 
ments that  call  for  the  death  of  the  sacrifice  offered  for 
sin,  and  the  shedding  of  blood  in  order  to  the  remission 
of  sins,  call  for  the  death  of  Christ  as  our  Mediator. 

We  have  considered  the  sufferings  of  our  Lord.  We 
have  witnessed  his  passion  and  crucifixion.  We  have 
seen  the  man  Christ  Jesus  after  a  night  of  misery  and 
insult ;  buffeted  before  the  priests  ;  mocked  in  royal  array 
before  Herod;  scourged  and  crowned  with  thorns  by 
Pilate  ;  betrayed  by  one  of  his  Apostles  and  forsaken  by 
them  all,  and  his  precious  body  nailed  to  the  cross. 
Behold  the  man !  "Is  it  nothing  to  you,  all  ye  that  pass 
by  \  Behold,  and  see  if  there  be  any  sorrow  like  unto 
my  sorrow,  which  is  done  unto  me,  wherewith  the  Lord 
hath  afflicted  me  in  the  day  of  his  fierce  anger  ?"  But  God 
has  mercifully  put  it  beyond  the  power  of  the  body  to 
endure  the  extremity  of  mortal  agony  for  any  great  length 
of  time,  for  when  the  forces  of  nature  are  spent,  life 
ceases  in  death.  This  law  obtained  with  Jesus.  And  if 
any  other  proof  could  be  wanting  for  the  reality  of  his 
death,  it  is  given  in  his  pierced  side,  when  from  his  heart 
there  came  out  a  mingled  flow  of  blood  and  water.     This 


126  god's    only   SOIf    OUR    "dead    CHRIST." 

is  of  itself,  without  tlie  torturing,  the  scourging,  and 
crowning  with  thorns,  and  the  nailing  to  the  cross,  quite 
sufficient  to  cause  his  death.  And  when  this  witness  of 
"blood  was  given,  it  was  accompanied  with  such  pheno- 
mena, that  the  Centurion  cried  out,  "  Truly  this  was  the 
Son  of  God."  The  words  of  our  Creed,  suffered  under 
Pontius  Pilate^  was  crucified,  dead  and  buried,  may 
seem  a  useless  repetition,  and  accordingly  in  some  of  the 
ancient  copies  this  Article  was  expressed  by  the  single 
phrase,  was  crucified  under  Pontius  Pilate.  And  this 
does  indeed  comprehend  all ;  still  there  was  a  purpose, 
and  an  important  one,  to  be  served  by  retaining  the  four 
terms,  suffered,  loas  crucified,  dead  and  buried.  Each 
one  of  these  terms  disclaimed  and  rejected  from  the  faith 
of  the  Church  some  erroneous  conceit  or  false  doctrine 
concerning  the  sufferings  and  death  of  Christ,  and  by 
using  them  all  in  the  order  of  the  Article,  we  have  a  more 
full  and  clear  statement,  affirming  the  reality  of  his  suffer- 
ings, and  setting  forth  the  manner  and  main  circum- 
stances and  complete  effect  of  his  sufferings,  which  ended 
in  his  death  on  the  cross  and  actual  burial  in  the  tomb  of 
Joseph  of  Arimathea.  It  is  a  possible  supposition  in  such 
cases,  that,  even  after  crucifixion  was  commenced,  the 
sufferer  might  be  taken  down  and  live.  Such  cases  are 
on  record  in  the  books.  Our  Lord' s  persecutors,  in  their 
cruel  mockery,  spoke  of  his  saving  others,  now  let  him 
save  himself  by  coming  down  from  the  cross.  But  in  his 
case  it  is  plain  nothing  of  the  kind  was  done.  Our  Lord 
remained  on  the  cross,  and  his  sufferings  continued  till 
they  terminated  in  death.  And  our  surgeons  and  medi- 
cal men  will  all  tell  you  that  the  wound  from  the  Roman 
spear  in  his  side  would  have  produced  certain  death,  if 
there  had  been  no  other  cause. 

Under  Pontius  Pilate  does  not  exclude  his  sufferings 


HIS    SUFFERINGS    UNDER   PILATE.  127 

"before  nor  after  his  arraignment  at  Pilate's  judgment  bar — 
does  not  deny  his  sufferings  in  the  garden,  and  before 
Herod,  and  on  the  way  to  Calvary,  and  on  the  cross. 
Suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate — i7:\  Ilovriou  noAmu — is  in- 
tended to  express  what  He  underwent  in  the  way  of 
judicial  process,  his  arrest  and  arraignment,  his  sentence 
from  Pilate— that  He  was  treated,  prosecuted,  condemned 
and  put  to  death,  professedly,  according  to  law  as  a 
malefactor.  It  embraces  all  the  infirmities  which  He  bore 
for  our  sake,  from  his  manger-cradle  to  his  last  moment 
on  the  cross — all  the  discomforts  and  sufferings  of  his 
infancy,  youth,  and  manhood,  of  his  private  and  public 
life — all  the  pains  and  sorrows  that  He  underwent  and 
endured  in  the  course  of  his  ministry,  and  chiefly  just 
previous  to  his  death.  Under  Pontius  Pilate  designates 
the  consummation  of  the  judicial  process.  All  before 
was  leading  to  this,  and  all  after  was  the  effect  of  his  con- 
demnation by  the  lioman  governor,  who  scourged  him 
and  delivered  him  to  be  crucified.  Suffered,  then,  is  to 
be  taken  in  the  sense  of  was  punished  as  a  malefactor, 
and  so  were  fulfilled  the  Scriptures  which  foretold  that 
Christ  should  thus  suffer.  He  was  striclcen  and  smitten 
of  God  for  us.  Gfod  made  him  sin  for  us — a  propitiation 
— a  sacrifice— made  Him,  His  only  Son  our  Lord,  who 
knew  no  sin — who  was  perfectly  innocent  and  free  from 
all  sin — made  Him  sin  for  us.  That  is.  He  was  treated 
as  a  malefactor  in  our  place,  and  bore  the  wrath  of  God 
against  sin,  that  we  might  be  made  the  righteousness  of 
God  in  him.     He  was  numbered  among  the  transgressors. 

But  while  suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate  affirms  the 
punishment  of  death  under  a  professed  legal  process,  in- 
flicted upon  him  as  a  condemned  malefactor,  it  remained 
still  to  describe  the  nature,  and  exact  kind  and  manner 
of  that  suffering,  which,  according  to  the  Scriptures,  had 


128      GOD'S  ONLY  SON^  OUR  "  DEAD  CHRIST." 

to  be  most  painful  and  covered  with  ignominy.  Hence, 
the  expressions  was  crucified  and  dead  were  added.  It  is 
true,  we  might  suppose  was  crucified  included  suifering, 
for  crucifying  was  the  most  excruciating  kind  of  suffer- 
ing, and  also  that  loas  crucified  would  mean  also  that  he 
really  died.  But  it  has  already  been  shown,  firsts  that 
Sabellius  held  that  it  was  the  Father  Almighty  that  suf- 
fered and  was  crucified,  and,  therefore,  the  Creed  and 
Catechism  affirmed  it  was  Jesus  Christ,  God's  only  Son, 
who  suffered  and  was  crucified.  And,  secondly,  that  the 
Docetai  and  Basilides,  and  such  like  errorists,  said  that 
Jesus  did  not  really  suffer,  but  only  seemed  to  suffer. 

And  Apollinaris  conceived  the  monstrous  notion  that 
Christ  had  no  human  soul,  but  that  the  place  of  the 
proper  human  soul  in  his  body  was  occupied  by  his 
Divinity.  Consequently,  he  denied  the  possibility  of 
Christ's  true  and  natural  death.  For  if  He  had  no  proper 
soul  in  union  with  the  body,  of  course  there  could  be  no 
death,  for  there  could  be  no  separation  of  body  and  soul, 
as  when  we  die.  And,  thirdly^  Mohammed  and  others 
said  it  was  Simon  the  Cyrenian,  and  not  Jesus  Christ  at 
all,  that  "  suffered,  was  crucified,  dead  and  buried." 

The  affirmation,  therefore,  is  emphatic,  Jesus  Christ 
suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate— ^o  suffered  that  He  was 
crucified  even  unto  death,  and  that  He  did  actually  die, 
and  was  buried  as  a  dead  man^  his  body  being  treated  as 
that  of  any  other  dead  man.  Our  Catechism  asks: 
'*  Wherein  did  Christ's  humiliation  consist  ?" 

^^ Ans.  Christ's  humiliation  consisted  in  his  being 
born,  and  that  in  a  low  condition,  made  under  the  law, 
undergoing  the  miseries  of  this  life,  the  wrath  of  God,  and 
the  cursed  death  of  the  cross ;  in  being  buried,  and  con- 
tinuing under   the  power  of  death  for  a   time."     The 


NATURE    OF   CHRISt's    DEATH.  129 

Heidelberg  Catecliism  asks  :  *'  Why  was  it  necessary  for 
Christ  to  humble  himself,  even  unto  death  f' 

^''  Ans.  Because,  with  respect  to  the  justice  and  truth 
of  God,  satisfaction  for  our  sins  could  not  be  made  other- 
wise than  by  the  death  of  the  Son  of  God." 

I  thought  last  Sabbath  evening  that  I  should  be  able 
to  treat  of  both  terms,  dead  and  buried^  this  evening,  but 
find  now  that  I  shall  be  obliged  to  postpone  Our  Lord's 
Burial  to  the  next  Sabbath  evening. 

To  assist  your  memory,  I  propose  the  following  order 
in  the  remarks  which  I  hope  now  to  make  on  Christ  as 
dead  on  the  Cross  :  namely, 

I.  Of  the  nature  of  his  death. 

II.  Why,  or  how,  and  for  what  reasons  it  came  to 
pass  that  Jesus  did  die  on  the  Cross.  The  necessity  of 
his  humiliation  unto  death. 

III.  And  thirdly,  but  briefly,  the  ends  aimed  at  and 
accomplished  by  his  death. 

lY.  And  lastly,  something  as  to  the  benefits  secured  to 
us  by  his  death. 

I.  In  what  did  Chris  f  s  death  consist  f  WJiat  was  its 
nature  f  The  Article  declares,  first,  the  fact  and  quality 
of  Our  Lord' s  sufferings.  He  was  dealt  with  as  a  male- 
factor by  the  Roman  governor,  Pontius  Pilate;  and, 
secondly,  He  was  crucified,  which  explains  the  manner 
of  his  sufferings,  fulfilling  exactly  all  the  requisites  of  the 
Scriptures ;  and,  thirdly,  it  affirms  the  result  or  end  of 
his  sufferings  on  the  cross — He  was  dead.  His  sufferings 
were  completed  only  when,  and  not  until,  he  gave  up  the 

9 


130  god's   only   son    OUE    "dead    CHRIST." 

ghost.     He  lost,  or  rather  laid  down  his  life  by  the  siiflfer- 
ings  He  endured  when  He  died  on  the  Cross. 


Plain,  however,  as  the  narrative  of  our  Lord' s  suffer- 
ings and  death  is,  I  confess  I  am  not  altogether  surprised 
at  the  weakness  that  would  seek  for  some  interpretation 
that  would  relieve  the  sacred  writers  from  affirming  the 
literal,  actual  death  of  the  Son  of  God.  Were  not  the 
heart-sorrows  of  His  life  enough  to  satisfy  the  wrath  of 
God  against  sin  ?  If  Enoch  and  Elijah  were  translated  to 
heaven  without  tasting  death,  how  is  it  that  God' s  own 
dear  Son  must  pass  through  the  mortal  agony  of  actual 
death  1  There  certainly  must  have  been  some  great  cause 
why  the  Lord  Jesus  humbled  himself  unto  death.  And 
so  indeed  there  was.  The  law  of  God  said,  ''The  soul 
that  sinneth,  it  shall  die."  ''  Without  the  shedding  of 
blood,  there  is  no  remission  of  sins."  Man  is  a  sinner, 
and  must  therefore  die,  or  an  able,  accepted  substitute 
must  die  for  him.  Mere  suffering,  wrung  from  the  heart, 
mere  agony  of  the  body  and  soul,  however  severe,  and 
long  continued,  is  not  enough  unless  it  end  in  actual 
death.  Death  is  the  penalty.  Not  mere  suffering,  how- 
ever exalted  the  sufferer,  or  however  severe,  can  meet  the 
requirements  of  the  law.  No  seeming  death,  no  deep 
trance,  no  syncope  from  which  the  sufferer  may  be  re- 
covered will  meet  the  case.  The  law  calls  for  blood — for 
life.  The  law  is  earnest,  specific,  distinct.  It  demands 
blood,  and  that  the  blood  be  so  shed  as  to  produce  actual 
death  ;  the  law  calls  for  suffering,  to  be  endured  with 
agony  and  under  shame,  and  to  be  continued  till  de^th 
actually  takes  place  on  the  accursed  tree.  So  it  was  with 
the  Hebrew  sacrifices.  The  Paschal  Lamb  really  died — 
was  truly  slain.  At  the  very  hour,  or  at  least  at  the  same 
great  Jewish  Festival,  at  which  Jesus  was   crucified, 


WHAT   CONSTITUTED   HIS   DEATH.  131 

thousands  of  Hebrew  lambs  were  recently  slain  or  djang. 
The  death  of  their  great  antitype  was  as  real. 

Again,  the  Son  of  God  took  on  Himself  human  nature, 
became  truly  man,  was  born,  and  breathed,  and  lived  in 
this  world  just  as  a  true  and  proper  man — as  John  the 
Baptist  did  ;  and  one  of  the  chief  ends  for  which  He  be- 
came man  was,  that  He  might  die.  For  this  end  He 
came  into  the  world.  Wherein^  then^  did  Ms  death  con- 
sist f  I  answer,  Jesus  died  when  and  just  as  a  man  dies 
when  his  soul  leaves  his  body.  His  human  nature  it  was 
that  suffered  and  died ;  and  his  human  nature  was  per- 
fect. As  his  Divine  nature  was  not  changed  or  confused 
with  his  human  nature  when  He  became  man,  so  neither 
did  his  human  nature  cease  to  be  human  nature  when  it 
was  taken  by  his  Godhead.  It  was  his  manhood  that  was 
crucified,  was  dead  and  buried.  His  death  did  not, 
therefore,  consist  of  the  separation  of  his  Divinity  from 
either  his  body  or  his  soul.  If  this  were  so,  then  it  was 
not  the  Son  of  God  that  died,  but  the  Son  of  Mary. 
Then  Christ  would  be  divided  into  two  separate  persons, 
and  the  mystery  and  the  blessing  of  the  Incarnation 
would  be  lost.  But  we  believe  ''the  eternal  Son  of  God 
became  man,  and  so  was,  and  continueth  to  be,  God  and 
man  in  two  distinct  natures,  and  yet  inseparable  in  one 
person  forever.  When  Jesus  said,  '^  It  is  finished^  and 
gave  up  the  ghost,"  the  meaning  is  not  that  his  Godhead 
disconnected  itself  from  his  humanity.  His  human  na- 
ture was,  and  is,  and  will  ever  remain  absolutely  perfect. 
''  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  became  man  by  taking  to  him- 
self a  true  body  and  a  reasonable  soul,  being  conceived 
by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  the  womb  of  the 
Virgin  Mary,  and  born  of  her,  yet  without  sin."  Catech., 
22  Ques.  After  Jesus  expired,  his  body  was  there  before 
the  eyes  of  the  beholders,  just  as  the  body  of  your  friend 


132  god's  only  son  our  "dead  christ." 

is  before  you  on  the  bed  after  the  breath  has  left  it,  and 
you  are  closing  the  eyes.  This  was  the  dead  Christ  of 
our  sculptors  and  painters.  His  holy  head  was  slightly 
drooped ;  his  gentle  and  loving  eyes  were  softly  closed  ; 
his  blessed  heart  was  still ;  his  wounds  ceased  to  drop 
the  clotting  blood  ;  his  body  is  still  suspended  by  the 
rugged  nails;  but  the  long  agony  is  over.  *'He  has 
lived  our  life  to  its  last  pang.  His  soul  has  gone  out  of 
the  torn  and  mangled  body.  Jesus  of  jN'azareth  is 
dead."*  The  death  of  Christ  must  be  as  complete  a  dis- 
solution of  his  soul  and  body  as  was  that  of  Adam,  and 
of  every  one  of  Adam' s  race  at  death.  Accordingly  the 
record  is  emphatic.  Jesus  breathed  out  Ms  spirit  and 
gave  up  the  ghost.  But  who  can  tell  what  death  is? 
Who  knows  what  life  is  ?  Now  the  term  dead,  applied 
to  Jesus  Christ,  must  comprehend  and  mean  all  that  death 
physical  means  when  applied  to  any  mortal  man.  When 
our  first  parents  sinned,  they  died  a  spiritual  death — fell 
from  original  righteousness  and  lost  communion  with  God 
— and  in  this  state  of  spiritual  death  we  are  all  born  and 
continue  until  we  are  regenerated,  and  if  not  regenerated 
or  born  again,  this  spiritual  death  ends  in  death  eternal, 
which  is  also  called  the  second  death — which  is  an  end- 
less separation  of  the  soul  from  the  presence  of  God  and 
the  joys  of  heaven.  In  the  word  dead,  as  applied  to 
Jesus  Christ,  there  is,  then,  no  reference  to  spiritual  or 
eternal  death,  as  just  described.  It  belongs  exclusively 
to  his  body.  It  means  his  true  and  proper  death,  not 
differing  in  any  way  from  that  temporal  death  which  all 
of  our  race  must  undergo.  Jesus  Christ  actually  died 
just  such  a  death  as  you  and  I  must  go  through  in  meet- 
ing the  appointment  of  our  Creator,  who  has  appointed 


*  See  Bethune, 


WHAT   IS   TEMPORAL   DEATH?  13,3 

Tinto  all  men  once  to  die — we  must  needs  die,  and  are  as 
water  spilt  upon  the  ground  that  cannot  be  gathered  up 
again.  What  man  is  he  that  liveth,  and  shall  not  see 
death  ?  Shall  he  deliver  his  soul  from  the  hand  of  the 
grave?  The  awful  sentence  on  Adam  was  in  these 
words  :  ''In  the  sweat  of  thy  face  shalt  thou  eat  bread, 
till  thou  return  unto  the  ground  :  for  out  of  it  wast  thou 
taken :  for  dust  thou  art,  and  unto  dust  shalt  thou  re- 
turn." Gen.  iii.  19.  And  accordingly,  dying  is  de- 
scribed as  returning  home,  for  at  death  the  body,  which 
is  dust,  returns  to  the  earth  as  it  was  ;  and  th^  spirit 
returns  to  God  who  gave  it.  Ecc.  xii.  7.  Death,  in  the 
light  of  these  texts,  is  a  returning  of  man  to  original  prin- 
ciples. It  is  a  ceasing  of  the  vital  functions  of  the  body. 
It  is  no  longer  capable  of  motion,  appetite,  or  passion. 
There  remains  in  it  neither  perception  nor  sense.  There 
are  the  hands  and  arms,  but  they  are  crossed  over  the 
body,  cold,  stiff,  motionless.  There  are  the  eyes,  but 
they  see  not.  There  the  lips  once  so  fervid  and  eloquent, 
but  now  mute  as  marble.  The  chest  and  lungs,  once 
heaving  with  rushing  blood  and  deep  emotions,  are  as 
lifeless  as  the  tombstone.  There  has  been  a  sad  dissolu- 
tion of  partnership  between  the  body  and  the  soul.  This 
separation  is  so  complete  that  it  looks  as  if  the  body  were 
the  cage,  and  the  soul  a  winged  inhabitant  who  had  just 
fled  away — as  if  the  body  were  a  temple,  and  the  soul  a 
Divinity  that  dwelt  in  it,  but  had  departed  from  it.  And 
this  dissolution  between  the  body  and  the  soul  produces 
fatal  effects  upon  the  body.  For  death  is  a  breaking  of 
the  link  that  unites  the  body  and  the  soul  together,  and 
when  this  link  is  broken  the  body  is  nothing  but  dust. 
Now,  in  the  history  of  the  crucifying  of  our  Lord,  we 
have  such  antecedents  and  such  signs  following  as  plain- 
ly imply  the  reality  of  his  dying.  In  this  history,  we 
see  what  would  produce  death  in  any  of  his  followers — 


134         god's  only  son  our  "dead  cheist." 

exactly  what  did  produce  death  in  nearly  every  one  of 
his  Apostles.  There  is  the  same  extreme  anguish,  the 
same  tearing  and  gashing  and  rending  of  his  flesh,  the 
same  effusion  of  blood,  and  the  same  breathing  out  of  the 
breath  of  life,  that  there  would  have  been,  if  it  had  been 
St.  Peter  or  St.  Paul  who  was  crucified.  The  Scriptures 
speak  of  his  being  slain^  cut  off^  taken  away^  destroyed^ 
slauglitered,  sacrificed,  crucified,  and  these  terms  mean, 
when  applied  to  the  Son  of  God,  just  what  they  express 
when  used  in  describing  the  violence  done  to  a  prophet, 
an  apostle,  or  any  other  martyr.  And  He  was  judged  to 
be  dead  by  the  same  signs  that  would  lead  to  such  a  con- 
clusion in  any  other  similar  case.  Thus  the  soldiers 
judged  him  to  be  dead — seeing  Mm  already  dead,  they 
did  not  hreaJc  Ms  legs,  and  both  friends  and  enemies  con- 
cur in  the  judgment  of  the  soldiers.  His  enemies  exult 
over  him  dead,  and  his  friends  and  followers  mourn  him 
as  really  dead,  and  think  of  nothing  more  than  of  giving 
him  a  proper  burial.  And  accordingly,  the  very  terms 
used  by  the  Evangelists  express  precisely  the  real  nature 
of  his  death.  St.  Mark  says.  He  expired,  He  breathed  out 
Ms  soul  or  his  last  breath,  St.  Matthew  says.  He  let  go 
Ms  spirit,  or  gave  up  the  ghost ;  and  St.  John  says.  He 
delivered  up  his  spirit  into  the  hands  of  God ;  and  St. 
Luke  describes  the  same  thing  by  repeating  the  words  of 
Jesus:  ''''Father,  into  thy  hands  I  commend,  or  commit 
my  spirits  And  in  proof  of  the  same  thing,  we  may 
call  to  mind  his  own  words,  saying,  /  lay  down  my  life, 
I  give  my  life  a  ransom.  And  accordingly,  on  the 
Mount  of  Transfiguration,  Moses  and  Elias  spake  to  him 
of  his  decease,  wliich  he  should  accomplish  at  Jerusalem. 
Again  and  again,  and  by  various  figures  and  terms,  did 
He  foretell  to  his  disciples  his  sufferings  and  the  kind  of 
death  He  was  to  die.  "  And  when  Jesus  knew  that  his 
time  was  come,  that  he  should  depart  from  this  world." 


cheist's  death  desceibed.  135 

Wherever  his  going  out  of  the  world  or  leaving  his  disci- 
ples, or  his  dying  is  spoken  of,  the  idea  is  that  He  would 
die  just  as  one  of  them  would  die  :  His  soul  would  leave 
his  body,  and  the  ordinary  signs  would  be  found  on  his 
body,  and  he  would  be  judged  to  be  dead,  just  as  one  of 
them  would  be. 

Shall  we  say  with  Peter  and  Paul,  that  death  is  a  dis- 
solving of  our  earthly  Jiouse^  or  the  laying  of  it  down^  or 
putting  off  our  tabernacle?  Shall  we  say  it  is  going 
abroad,  away  and  out  of  the  world,  being  absent  from  the 
body — a  going  hence,  the  way  of  all  the  earth,  a  being 
seen  no  more  among  men  ;  a  resting  from  one's  labors  ;  a 
falling  on  sleep;  sleeping  with  one's  fathers;  gathered 
to  our  people  ;  being  added  to  our  fathers,  or  a  going 
over  to  the  majority  ;  being  taken  or  cut  off  from  the  land 
of  the  living  ;  going  down  into  the  pit ;  to  the  house 
appointed  for  all  living  ;  making  our  bed  in  darkness,  or 
a  lying  down,  or  resting,  or  sleeping  in  the  dust  1  In  a 
word,  we  find  no  phrase  in  philosophy,  poetry;  or  Scrip- 
ture, by  which  human  death  is  expressed,  that  does  not 
apply  to  our  Lord' s  death.  I  believe,  therefore,  with  the 
Creed,  in  Jesus  Christ,  who  suffered,  was  crucified,  dead 
and  buried — that  his  death  was  a  true  and  proper  death — 
just  such  a  real  separating  of  his  soul  and  body  as  takes 
place  when  one  of  us  dies. 

In  the  death  of  Christ,  who  is  the  second  man,  the 
Lord  from  heaven,  we  have  firsts  then,  just  such  a  death 
as  was  pronounced  against  Adam,  the  first  man.  Christ, 
as  our  substitute,  surrendered  himself  to  the  whole  of  the 
death  which  lay  upon  Adam,  as  the  effect  of  the  Divine 
wrath  for  his  sin.  And  surely  this  is  love  beyond  de- 
gree— love  transcending  reason' s  grasp,  and  almost  para- 
lyzes faith  itself — that  He  who  restored  so  many  diseased 
persons  and  raised  the  dead,  and  who  is  the  author  of  life 


186         god's  only  son  our  "dead  christ." 

and  immortality,  should  himself  submit  to  death.  And 
that  He  should  die  for  the  expiation  of  our  sins  ;  for  He 
'*made  his  soul  an  offering  for  sin,  to  finish  the  transgres- 
sion, to  make  an  end  of  sin,  to  make  reconciliation  for 
iniquity,  and  to  bring  in  everlasting  righteousness. "  ' '  As 
it  is  appointed  unto  men  once  to  die,  so  also  Christ  was 
once  offered  to  bear,"  to  take  upon  himself,  and  thus  to 
take  away,  ''the  sins  of  many." 

Again,  secondly.  In  CTirisV  s  deaths  we  have  Mm 
witnessing  to  the  whole  of  the  New  Covenant.  "  The  Old 
Testament  was  confirmed  by  the  blood  of  victims  sprin- 
kled on  the  altar,  the  book  of  the  Covenant,  and  the  peo- 
ple. Ex.  xxiv.  6-8  ;  Heb.  ix.  18,  19.  But  as  the  New 
Testament  far  excels  the  Old,  it  was  proper  that  it  should 
be  ratified  by  much  nobler  blood,  even  by  the  blood  of 
the  Son  of  God,  dying  as  a  testator  for  the  confirmation 
of  his  testament." — [See  Witsius  on  this  head.]  He  died 
to  make  the  promises  of  the  New  Testament  sure  and 
irrevocable.  In  Him  as  a  faithful  and  true  witness  all 
the  promises  of  God  are  yea  and  amen.  As  a  prophet  he 
preached  unto  us  a  new  and  better  covenant,  which  was 
established  upon  better  promises,  and  was  ratified  with 
his  blood,  and  hence  He  himself  calls  his  blood  ''the 
blood  of  the  New  Testament,"  and  where  a  testament  is, 
there  must  also  of  necessity  be  the  death  of  the  testator. 
His  death,  therefore,  was  necessary  for  the  fulfilment 
and  confirmation  of  his  prophetical  ofiice. 

And,  thirdly.  The  same  thing  is  true  of  his  priestly 
office.  "For  every  high  priest  taken  from  among  men, 
is  ordained  for  men  in  things  pertaining  to  God,  that  he 
may  offer  both  gifts  and  sacrifices  for  sins."  But  Christ 
had  no  other  sacrifice  to  offer  than  himself.  Therefore  He 
made  his  soul  an  offering  unto  death  for  sin.  As  our 
Passover,  Christ  must  be  slain  for  us.    We  were  sold 


WHY   CHRIST   DEED.  137 

under  sin,  and  nothing  but  the  life's  blood  of  Him  who 
would  redeem  us  could  purchase  our  ransom.  We  could 
not  be  redeemed  ''with  corruptible  things,  as  silver  and 
gold,  but  only  with  the  precious  blood  of  Christ,  as  of  a 
lamb  without  blemish  and  without  spot."  "  We,  who 
were  sometimes  alienated  and  enemies,  were  reconciled  to 
God  by  the  death  of  his  Son."  ''  Yet  now  hath  He  recon- 
ciled us  in  the  body  of  his  flesh  through  death." 

And  again,  fourthly.  It  was  necessary  for  Christ  to 
die  to  complete  His  kingly  office,  and  exalt  His  regal 
dignity. 

II.  Why  was  it  necessary  for  Christ  to  humble  him- 
self even  unto  death  f  or  How  did  it  come  to  pass  that 
Ood)  s  only  Son,  so  holy  and  sinless,  died  such  a  death  as 
this? 

I  answer,  first.  It  was  according  to  the  determinate 
counsel  and  foreknowledge  of  God.  It  was  not  by  chance 
or  a  casual  event,  or  a  suddenly  devised  expediency,  that 
the  Son  of  God  was  delivered  up  to  be  crucified  and  slain 
by  wicked  hands,  but  by  the  eternal  decree  of  God. 
Hence,  although  Herod  and  Pilate,  Jews  and  Gentiles 
conspired  together  to  crucify  the  Lord  of  glory,  God's 
innocent  Son,  yet  He  was  a  Lamb  slain  from  the  founda- 
tion of  the  world. 

Secondly.  It  was  by  his  own  free  consent  that  He  was 
crucified  to  death.  He  yielded  himself  voluntarily.  He 
laid  down  his  life  for  his  sheep.  Hence  it  is  said  the 
Church  \^  purchased  with  his  blood.  "  When  thou  shalt 
make  his  soul  an  offering,  thou  shalt  see  thy  seed  and 
prolong  thy  days,  and  the  pleasure  of  the  Lord  shall 
prosper  in  thy  hand  ;  thou  shalt  see  of  the  travail  of  thy 
soul,  and  be  satisfied."   And  so  the  Apostle  tells  us  Jesus, 


188         god's  only  son  our  "dead  christ." 

for  the  suffering  of  death,  was  crowned  with  glory  and 
honor — that  He,  pouring  out  his  soul  unto  death,  received 
from  his  Father  a  portion  with  the  great— that  He  being 
obedient  to  the  death,  God  exalted  him,  and  gave  him  a 
name  above  all  names.  Isa.  liii.  ;  Heb.  x.  and  ii.  And  in 
regard  to  all  typical  persons  and  rites  in  the  old  Dispen- 
sation, especially  the  paschal  lamb,  St.  Peter  says  ex- 
pressly those  things  which  God  before  had  shewed  by  the 
mouth  of  all  his  prophets,  that  Christ  should  suffer.  He 
hath  so  fulfilled ;  and  so  the  risen  Saviour  said,  O  fools  and 
slow  of  heart  to  believe  all  that  the  prophets  have  spoken  : 
ought  not  Christ  according  to  their  predictions  to  have 
suffered  these  things,  and  so  to  enter  into  his  glory  ?  It 
was  thus  the  Spirit  of  Christ  which  was  in  the  prophets 
testified  beforehand  of  his  sufferings. 


And,  tJiirdly.  As  Christ  was  ordained  to  death  from 
eternity  by  the  appointment  of  the  Father,  and  by  His 
own  free  choice,  and  was  so  set  forth  by  the  types  and 
in  the  prophecies,  so  also  He  was  instrumentally  and 
judicially  and  actually  put  to  death  in  Ms  proper  person 
under  Pontius  Pilate.  A  special  Providence  so  directed 
that  the  treachery  of  Judas  and  the  conspiracy  of  the 
Jewish  rulers  and  the  concurrence  of  Pilate  and  Herod 
should  bring  about  His  death  in  exact  fulfilment  of  the 
Scriptures.  And  this  moreover,  we  are  told,  was  done 
without  destroying  the  free  agency  of  those  who  executed 
our  Lord.  They  did  it  all  with  wicked  hands.  Judas 
was  covetous,  the  rulers  were  blind  with  envy  and  rage, 
and  the  governor  was  fickle  and  selfish,  yet  it  was 
Jehovah  who  laid  upon  Him  the  iniquities  of  us  all  :  He 
was  stricken,  smitten,  afflicted  of  God.  It  was  the  Lord 
of  Glory,  the  Prince  of  Life  who  was  thus  treated.  '*  Ye 
denied,"  says  Peter,  ^*  Ye  denied  the  Holy  One  and  the 


ENDS  OF  Christ's  death.  139 

Just  One  ;  Ye  slew  the  Prince  of  Life,  ye  crucified  the 
Lord  of  Glory." 

III.  Why  did  Christ  thus  die  f  What  ends  did  He 
accomplish  by  humiliating  Himself  unto  death  f 

Answer.  First  He  fulfilled  the  Father' s  purpose,  and 
finished  the  work  and  mission  on  which  He  was  sent  into 
this  world.  He  came  from  the  glory  of  eternity  which  He 
had  with  the  Father  before  the  world  was — from  the 
bosom  of  his  Father  to  do  His  will — to  reveal  His  love  to 
us,  and  to  die  that  God  might  be  just  and  yet  the  justitier 
of  them  that  believe  in  Jesus.  It  pleased  Jehovah  to 
bruise  him  for  us.  This  command  to  lay  his  life  down, 
says  He,  I  received  of  my  Father.  And  the  cup  which 
my  Father  hath  given  me,  shall  I  not  drink  it  ?  No  one 
taketh  my  life  from  me,  but  I  lay  it  down  of  myself ;  I 
have  power  to  lay  it  down,  and  have  power  to  take  it 
again.  The  blood  which  I  shed  is  my  flesh,  which  I  will 
give  for  the  life  of  the  world.  The  Son  of  Man  came  to 
give  his  life  a  ransom  for  many. 

Secondly.  By  dying  He  illustrated  the  perfections  of 
God  in  harmony  and  manifested  the  Divine  Glory.  On 
the  cross  we  have  a  demonstration  of  His  righteousness 
(Rom.  iii.  25). 

Thirdly.  Hereby  Christ  also  acquired  a  right  to  uni- 
versal dominion  and  eternal  glory.  For  to  this  end 
Christ  died,  that  He  might  be  Lord  of  the  dead  and  living. 
The  Prince  of  our  Salvation  was  made  perfect  through 
suffering.  For  the  joy  that  was  set  before  Him  He 
endured  the  Cross  ;  He  was  obedient  unto  death — there- 
fore God  hath  highly  exalted  him,  that  at  the  name  of 
Jesus  every  knee  should  bow,  of  things  in  heaven  and 
things  in  earth,  and  things  under  the  earth ;   and  that 


140  god's    only   son   our    "dead    CHRIST." 

every  tongue  should  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord,  to 
the  glory  of  God  the  Father.     Phil.  ii. 

Fourthly.  He  died  on  the  Cross  to  redeem  us  by  being 
made  a  curse  for  us.  "  Being  justified  by  His  blood,  we 
shall  be  saved  by  Him  from  wrath.  For  if,  being  ene- 
mies, we  were  reconciled  to  God  by  the  death  of  His 
Son,  much  more  shall  we  be  saved  by  His  life."  But 
now  once  in  the  end  of  the  world,  as  the  Apostle  in  the 
Hebrews  saith,  hath  He,  Christ,  appeared — that  is,  in  the 
end  of  the  old  Dispensation,  He  hath  appeared  to  the 
putting  away,  the  expiating,  the  abolishing  of  sin,  the 
procuring  of  pardon  for  sin  by  the  sacrifice  of  himself. 
"For  the  blood  of  Christ  the  Son  of  God  cleanseth  us 
from  all  sin."  ''  He  gave  himself  for  us  that  He  might 
deliver  us  from  this  present  evil  world,  and  redeem  us 
from  all  iniquity,  and  purify  unto  himself  a  peculiar 
people,  zealous  of  good  works.  He  loved  us,  and  hath 
washed  us  from  our  sins  in  his  own  blood." 

I  have  but  little  time  left  for  practical  inferences 
from  this  great  and  awful  theme.  But  surely  you  are 
already  prepared  to  admit— I.  that  we  should  love  Him 
who  hath  loved  us,  and  given  himself  for  us.  And  surely 
we  should  exercise  repentance  toward  God  and  faith  in 
His  Son,  seeing  that  He  did  not  spare  His  own  Son,  but 
delivered  him  up  to  death  for  us  all— and  having  done 
this,  made  the  greatest  possible  gift :  how  shall  He  not 
with  Him  also  freely  give  us  all  things  ? 

II.  Christ  s  death  is  to  he  regarded  as  the  death  of 
Death.    Heb.  ii.  14, 15. 

When  the  sorrows  of  death  compassed.  Him  and  the 
sorrows  of  hell,  as  the  Psalmist  expresses  it,  compassed 
Him  about,  then  Death  came  upon  Him  to  swallow  him 
up  ;  but  Death  himself  was  swallowed  up  by  the  dying 


Luther's  willingness  to  die.  141 

Kedeemer  in  a  perfect  and  complete  victory.  Christ 
abolished  death — rendered  it  feeble  and  without  effect ; 
so  that  the  believer's  death  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  the 
punishment  of  sin,  but  as  the  termination  of  sin,  and  the 
end  of  all  his  sorrows,  and  the  entrance  into  life  eternal. 

'*  Since,  then,  Christ  died  for  us,  why  must  we  also 
die?" 

'' Ans.  Our  death  is  not  a  satisfaction  for  our  sins; 
but  only  an  abolishing  of  sin  and  a  passage  to  eternal 
life."     Heidelberg  Catechism. 

"Death,  we  confess,  retains  its  name; 
Its  fatal  sting  it  cannot  claim. 
The  Christian  finds  this  last  of  foes 
Ordained  to  give  him  sweet  repose." 

I  have  selected  from  one  of  Lutlief  s  letters  a  few 
striking  sentences  on  this  subject,  in  his  own  peculiar 
style.  "  Our  enemies  often  threaten  us  with  death.  But 
if  they  were  as  much  distinguished  for  wisdom  as  they 
surpass  every  one  in  folly,  they  ought  really  to  threaten  us 
with  life.  A  truly  ridiculous  sort  of  terror,  as  if  they 
could  deter  Christ  and  His  people  from  their  purpose  by 
the  fear  of  death ;  for  Christians  are  the  conquerors  of 
death  through  Christ,  who  vanquished  and  triumphed 
over  the  King  of  Terrors,  and  showed  himself  alive  as  a 
trophy  of  his  victory  to  his  disciples.  Those  men,  in 
reality,  discover  the  same  egregious  madness,  as  if  I 
should  intend  to  intimidate  a  person  by  bringing  forth 
his  horse  saddled  and  bridled,  that  he  might  take  a  ride." 
Eather,  since  the  world  and  sorrow  and  sin  and  Satan 
press  us  so  hardly,  we  would  say,  Make  haste,  O  death, 
and  let  my  last  day  on  earth  soon  come  to  end  my  sins, 
and  usher  me  to  my  home  with  Jesus.  Nor,  III.  is  it  im- 
proper for  us  to  make  the  death  of  Jesus  an  example^  for 


142         god's  ojstly  son  our  "dead  christ." 

from  Him  we  learn,  1.  To  do  with  all  our  might  tlie  work 
given  us  to  do  by  our  Heavenly  Father,  and  not  be 
impatient  to  rest  from  toil,  or  to  win  the  prize,  till  our 
work  is  all  done,  and  done  successfully. 

2.  Like  our  Lord,  as  the  decisive  hour  approaches  we 
should  endeavor  so  to  disengage  ourselves  from  domestic 
concerns  and  secular  affairs,  that  we  may  be  ready  to 
depart  promptly  and  go  willingly  whenever  Jesus  calls. 

3.  We  may  humbly  imitate  Him,  committing  our 
departing  soul  to  God.  Stephen  did  this  under  a  shower 
of  stones.  This  may  be  done  even  when  there  is  not 
left  power  to  utter  words.     And, 

4.  We  should  die  believing  that  He  is  the  resurrection 
and  the  life — in  the  hope  of  a  blessed  resurrection  at  the 
last  day. 

O  my  beloved  brethren,  what  a  sight  is  a  dead 
Christ !  The  amazement  of  heaven,  the  terror  of  hell — 
the  wonder  of  the  beholding  universe  !  Dead  from  suf- 
fering the  wrath  of  God  due  to  us — upon  both  his  body 
and  his  soul, — the  death-punishment  which  in  fact  makes 
the  hell  of  the  lost  in  the  world  of  woe,  except  a  feeling  of 
conscious  personal  guilt.  When  He  bowed  His  head  and 
said,  ^'  It  is  finished,"  He  bore  the  pang  of  the  curse  and 
drank  the  cup  of  wrath,  and  the  Father  accepted  His 
atonement  for  His  people.  If,  then,  Jesus  our  Lord,  who 
thus  gave  himself  for  us,  is  with  us  in  the  toils,  son'ows, 
and  temptations  of  life,  we  need  not  fear  that  He  will  for- 
sake us  when  the  last  enemy  approaches.  Through  the 
whole  way  of  the  dark  valley,  in  the  fearful  mystery  of 
death,  He  will  be  with  us,  and  comfort  us. 


CHRIST    OFFERED    TO    US.  143 

"  Jesus  can  make  a  dying  bed 

Feel  soft  as  downy  pillows  are, 
While  on  His  breast  I  lean  my  head, 
And  breathe  my  life  out  sweetly  there." 

But,  my  dear  hearers,  let  me  beg  you  not  to  forget  that 
the  precious  benefits  of  Christ's  death  are  offered  to  you 
upon  the  condition  that  you  accept  them.  They  are  not 
absolute  and  without  conditions.  Our  Lord  established 
a  covenant  and  fulfilled  His  engagements  with  His  Father 
for  all  that  will  come  to  God  through  Him.  He  invites. 
He  draws,  He  calls,  and  whosoever  will  may  come. 
AVhosoever  believeth  and  is  baptized  shall  be  saved,  but 
he  that  believeth  not  shall  be  damned.  We  must  accept 
salvation  as  it  is  offered  to  us  in  the  Gospel,  or  we  have 
no  share  in  it. 


144  OUE    LOKD    CHRIST    BUELED. 


YIII. 


OUR  LORD  CHRIST  BURIED. 


"  And  when  they  had  fulfilled  all  that  was  written  of  him,  they  took  him 
down  from  the  tree,  and  laid  him  in  a  sepulchre." — Acts  xiii  29. 

The  way  in  which  our  text  was  fulfilled  is  described 
by  the  Evangelists.  Let  us  read  their  record  from  St. 
Matt,  xxvii.  57-66,  and  St.  John  xix.  31-49. 

Last  Sabbath  evening,  following  the  order  of  the 
words  in  the  fourth  Article  of  our  Creed,  we  were  wit- 
nesses of  our  Lord's  death.  We  are  now  to  attend  his 
funeral  and  burial :  such  a  funeral  as  never  was  since 
graves  were  first  digged,  or  tombs  first  cut  out  of  the 
rocks,  nor  ever  will  be  again  till  tombs  and  graves  are  no 
more.  The  Evangelists  tell  us  of  the  preparation  made 
for  the  funeral,  both  as  to  the  body  of  our  Lord  and  as 
to  the  tomb  to  receive  it.  And  then  they  tell  us  who 
were  the  hearers  of  the  sacred  body,  and  their  attendants, 
and  as  to  how  the  funeral  was  conducted.  The  funeral 
was  public,  solemn,  and  decent.  There  was  no  pomp  or 
empty  show  ;  no  hypocrisy  in  tears  or  outcries  ;  no  hired 
mourners  ;  but  there  were  melting  hearts  and  flowing  eyes 
over  his  tomb.  There  was  deep,  unutterable  feeling  in 
the  breasts  of  those  who  laid  Jesus  in  Joseph' s  tomb. 


THE  FULNESS  OF  OUR  CREED.         145 

In  many  of  the  ancient  Creeds,  the  two  particulars, 
"  buried,"  and  ^'descended  into  hell,"  are  joined  together 
as  one  Article  ;  or  else  the  latter  phrase,  ''He  descended 
into  hell,"  was  wholly  omitted  ;  or,  if  inserted,  was  re- 
garded as  the  substance  of  the  former,  and  stood  in  its 
room.  But,  for  quite  sufficient  reasons,  I  prefer  the  whole 
Article  as  we  have  it :  ''  Suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate,  was 
crucified,  dead  and  buried."  It  is  necessary  for  us  now, 
however,  to  consider  these  two  particulars  separately. 
"  He  descended  into  hell,"  according  to  Bishop  Pearson, 
belongs  to  i\\Qjifth  Article  of  the  Creed,  and  should  be 
taken  together  with  the  words,  "  third  day  He  rose  again 
from  the  dead." 

One  purpose,  at  least,  is  secured  by  the  use  of  all  these 
words  :  "  Buried  ;  He  descended  into  hell :" — namely,  we 
have  a  wonderful  fulness,  distinctness,  and  security  for 
every  thing  mentioned  in  the  Scriptures  concerning  our 
Lord's  person  and  sufferings,  concerning  his  arrest, 
arraignment,  and  treatment  by  Pilate  and  Herod,  and  of 
his  conduct  on  the  cross,  his  actual  death  and  burial,  and 
how  He  was  employed  while  his  body  lay  in  the  tomb  : 
all  these  particulars  are  comprehended  in  the  scope  of  the 
Article  professed  as  a  part  of  our  faith ;  and  when  we 
remember  how  many  spurious  gospels  were  afloat  in  the 
early  ages  of  the  Church,  and  how  many  crude  notions 
were  in  the  minds  of  philosophic  Gentile  converts,  we 
are  not  at  all  surprised  that  the  ancient  formulas  of  the 
Faith  of  the  Churcji  should  be  so  full  and  particular 
about  so  many  of  the  incidents  of  our  Lord's  last  hours, 
and  burial  and  resurrection.  Our  Creed  specially  makes 
mention  of  our  Lord's  burial  to  oppose  the  erroneous 
views  of  Simon  Magus  and  the  Docetse,  or  Phantasiasts, 
as  they  were  called,  who  denied  the  reality  of  oar  Lord's 

10 


146  OUE    LOKD    CHEIST    BUEIED. 

human  nature,  and  said  that  He  had  no  true  body,  and 
did  not  therefore  really  suffer,  hut  only  seemed  to  do  so  ; 
that  all  the  history  is  unreal — a  mere  appearance.  We 
know  that  such  errors  began  even  in  the  lifetime  of  the 
Apostles  themselves,  as  we  learn  from  1  John  iv.  1-3 : 
^'Beloved,  helieve  not  every  spirit,  but  try  the  spirits 
whether  they  are  of  Grod ;  because  many  false  prophets 
are  gone  out  into  the  world.  Hereby  know  ye  the  Spirit 
of  God :  every  spirit  that  confesseth  that  Jesus  Christ  is 
come  in  the  flesh,  is  of  God  :  and  every  spirit  that  confes- 
seth not  that  Jesus  Christ  is  come  in  the  flesh,  is  not  of 
God :  and  this  is  that  spirit  of  antichrist,  whereof  ye 
have  heard  that  it  should  come  ;  and  even  now  already 
is  it  in  the  world." 

In  the  previous  discourses,  I  have  attempted  to  prove 
that  the  Divinity  and  the  Humanity  of  our  Lord  were 
not  confused  or  mingled,  but  each  perfect  in  its  own 
nature,  and  so  remained,  and  is  so  still,  and  yet  consti- 
tuting one  person  forever ;  and  that  the  perfect  humanity 
of  our  Lord  consisted  of  "a  true  body  and  a  reasonable 
soul,"  and  that  his  djang  was,  like  the  death  of  Adam  or 
of  St.  Paul,  the  separation  of  his  "reasonable  soul" 
from  his  "  true  body  ;" — that  the  death  of  the  Son  of  God 
did  not  consist  in  His  Divinity  freeing  itself  from  and 
leaving  his  humanity,  but  in  the  dissolution  of  his  soul 
from  his  body.  And  from  this  it  follows,  that  his  burial 
was  the  sepulture  of  his  dead  body,  according  to  the  cus- 
tom of  his  countrymen  at  the  time. 

The  reality  of  our  Lord's  death  is  clearly  demonstrated 
by  the  actual  commitment  of  his  body  to  the  grave,  and 
is  acknowledged  by  the  Apostles  in  their  discourses  and 
epistles.  8t.  Paul^  in  1  Cor.  xv.,  declares  that  the  burial 
of  our  Lord  was  one  among  the  other  great  Articles  of  our 


THE   REALITY   OF   CHRISt's   BURIAL.  14T 

holy  religion,  which  he  was  accustomed  to  preach  as  a 
matter  of  faith.  His  words  here  are  so  remarkable,  I  beg 
you  will  especially  notice  them.  Please  to  read  with  me 
from  1  Cor.  chapter  xv.,  beginning  with  the  first  verse, 
and  onward  to  the  end  of  the  fourth  verse : 

"  Moreover,  brethren,  I  declare  unto  you  the  Gospel 
which  I  preached  unto  you,  which  also  ye  have  received, 
and  wherein  ye  stand  : 

2.  "By  which  also  ye  are  saved,  if  ye  keep  in  memory 
what  I  preached  unto  you,  unless  ye  have  believed  in 
vain. 

3.  ''  For  I  delivered  unto  you  first  of  all,  that  which  I 
also  received,  how  that  Christ  died  for  our  sins  according 
to  the  Scriptures. 

4.  "And  that  he  was  buried,  and  that  he  rose  again  the 
third  day  according  to  the  Scriptures." 

In  maintaining  the  proposition  of  this  Article  of  our 
Creed,  that  Christ  was  hurled^  I  desire  to  call  your  atten- 
tion : — 

To  the  fact  that  ^^e  'burial  of  Jesus  of  Nazarethy 
crucified  under  Pontius  Pilate,  was  in  exact  fulfilment  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures  concerning  the  Messiah.  This  will 
be  sufficiently  proven  from  two  things  :  First,  that  accord- 
ing to  Jewish  prophecies  and  types,  the  promised  Messiah 
was  to  be  buried  ;  and,  secondly,  according  to  our  sacred 
records,  Jesus  was  buried  precisely  in  the  way  the 
long  promised  Messiah  was  to  be  buried,  and  therefore 
our  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  the  Messiah,  the  Christ  of  God, 
the  Saviour  of  sinners.  These  points  are  after  Pearson's 
manner. 


148  OUR    LORD    CHRIST    BURIED. 

I.   The  Jewish  Messiah  was  to  he  buried. 

As  kindness  to  the  aged  and  unfortunate  distinguislies 
Christianity  from  Paganism,  so  does  the  respect  shown  In 
the  burial  of  the  pious  dead.  It  was  urged  by  the  Empe- 
ror Julian  the  Apostate,  that  one  of  the  great  inducements 
held  out  to  the  heathen  to  turn  Christians  was  the  care 
that  would  be  taken  of  them  at  death,  and  the  funeral 
solemnities  with  which  they  would  be  honored.  It  is 
true  the  early  Christians  not  only  showed  becoming  honor 
at  their  funerals  to  their  dead,  because  the  majority  of 
them  at  first  were  Jews,  and  as  such  they  had  been  care- 
fully educated  in  such  a  custom  ;  but  also,  perhaps,  as  a 
mark  of  peculiar  affection  to  the  faithful,  as  one  with 
them  in  Christ,  and  in  the  hope  of  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead.  As  the  Gospel  in  India  changes  the  funeral 
pile  of  the  widow  into  decent  mourning,  so  Christianity 
taught  the  heathen  from  the  beginning  to  bury  the  dead, 
while  remembering  their  virtues,  in  hope  of  life  and 
immortality.  Thus  we  read  that  when  Ananias  died, 
though  he  died  for  his  sin,  yet  they  "  wound  him  up,  and 
carried  him  out,  and  buried  him."  And  when  Stephen 
was  stoned,  ''devout  men  carried  him  to  his  burial,  and 
made  great  lamentation  over  him  ;"  and  when  Dorcas 
died,  "  they  washed  her,  and  laid  her  in  an  upper  cham- 
ber," to  get  her  ready  for  her  burial.  Burying  the  body 
is  moreover  eminently  proper  among  Christians  with 
respect  to  their  bodies,  which  are  ''temples  of  the  Holy 
G-host,"  and  are  purchased  by  Christ  as  well  as  their 
souls.  The  bodies  of  believers  are  therefore  at  the  resur- 
rection to  be  made  like  unto  his  own  glorious  body. 
Surely,  then,  it  is  becoming  for  them  to  be  laid  in  the 
wardrobe  of  the  grave  with  such  solemnity  and  propriety 
as  if  we  expected  them  to  come  forth  at  last  to  an  immortal 
and  glorious  life. 


BUEYLNG   A   HEBREW   CUSTOM.     .  149 

It  is  therefore  an  error  of  the  great  historian  Tacitus, 
to  say  as  he  does,  that  the  Jewish  custom  of  burying  the 
bodies  of  their  dead,  instead  of  burning  them,  as  the 
Romans  did,  was  borrow^ed  by  them  from  Egypt.  In  this 
the  Jews  did  not  differ  from  the  Romans  more  than  they 
did  from  the  Greeks,  for  the  Greeks  also  burned  the 
bodies  of  the  dead.  And  if  we  must  say  the  Jews  bor- 
rowed the  custom  from  any  other  nation,  it  was  rather 
from  the  Persians  than  from  the  Egyptians,  for  they  had 
the  custom  before  they  went  down  to  Egypt  at  all.  The 
oldest  and  the  most  beautiful  fragment  of  history  on  the 
subject  is  Abraham's  purchase  of  a  burying-place  of  the 
children  of  Heth,  in  which  to  bury  his  dead  out  of  his 
sight. 

The  rites  of  burial  were  almost  universally  granted 
among  the  Jews,  both  as  to  funeral  ceremonies  and  a  place 
for  interment.  The  place  of  burial  was  not  always  the 
same.  It  seems  never  to  have  been  particularly  deter- 
mined. For  we  find  their  graves  upon  the  highway  or  in 
their  gardens  [2  Kings  xxi.  18,  26],  and  upon  the  moun- 
tains, and  in  the  towns  and  in  the  country.  The  general 
custom,  however,  was,  and  it  is  still  the  custom  in  the 
East,  and  in  some  measure  throughout  Christendom,  to 
have  the  graveyard  outside  of  the  town,  on  a  hill-side, 
not  very  far  from  the  gate.  And  though  at  first  the 
Greeks  and  Romans  made  their  temples  repositories  for 
their  dead,  in  later  ages  they  buried  the  dead  without 
their  cities,  and  chiefly  by  the  highways. 

In  proof  that  the  Hebrew  Church  believed  that  the 
promised  Messiah  was  to  be  buried,  let  us  consider  : — 

1.  That  all  among  the  Jews  who  admitted  that  the 
Messiah  was  to  suffer  and  die,  believed  that  he  was  also 
to  be  buried.     For  this  was  the  custom  of  the  Jewish 


150  OUE    LORD    CHRIST    BURIED. 

people.  And  the  proof  of  this  is  so  abundant,  there  can 
"be  no  need  of  specifications  beyond  the  general  statements 
just  made  concerning  Jewish  funeral  rites  and  burying- 
places.  Every  one  who  reads  the  history  of  the  Jews, 
knows  how  often  there  is  mention  made  of  the  sepulchres 
of  their  fathers.  The  care  of  their  own  poor,  the  educa- . 
tion  of  their  children,  and  the  respectful  and  proper  bury- 
ing of  their  dead,  have  always  been  specialties  of  the 
Hebrew  race.  It  is  also  in  evidence,  that  among  them 
public  criminals  who  were  executed  were  not  buried  in 
their  fathers'  graves,  but  in  sepulchres  appointed  for 
them  by  the  civil  authorities,  or  obtained  for  them  by 
their  friends.  If  our  Lord's  body  had  not  been  claimed 
by  his  friends,  he  would  have  been  buried  in  the  common 
place  for  executed  persons,  and  then  we  should  not  have 
had  such  clear  evidences  of  his  identity  in  the  resurrec- 
tion. It  was  also  usual  for  the  instrument  which  was 
used  in  the  punishment  to  be  buried  with  them.  And  if  I 
attached  any  importance  to  the  story  of  the  finding  of  the 
true  cross  by  the  Empress  Helena  in  the  holy  sepulchre 
in  Jerusalem,  I  would  urge  this  latter  statement  as  a 
proof  of  its  truth  ;  I  have,  however,  before  stated,  that  I 
concur  altogether  in  the  judgment  of  many  eminent  men, 
who  regard  the  whole  story  as  an  invention,  and  to  be 
ranked  with  pious  frauds.  It  was,  however,  in  exact 
conformity  with  the  doctrines,  sentiments,  and  customs 
of  both  the  Jewish  and  Christian  Church  to  show  respect 
to  the  dead,  and  for  our  Lord' s  friends  to  give  him  pre- 
cisely such  a  burial  as  our  Evangelists  say  they  did. 


2.  The  53d  chapter  of  Isaiah  is  full  of  expressions  set- 
ting forth  the  sufferings  and  death  of  the  Messiah.  Let 
us  turn  to  this  chapter.  I  must  for  the  present  rest  on 
the  authorities  ancient  and  modern,  Jewish  and  Christian, 


chkist's  sufferings  for  us.  151 

who  admit  that  this  prophecy  relates  to  the  Messiah. 
Kead  verses  2-9. 

Here  it  is  to  be  noted — He  was  not  only  *' stricken, 
smitten,  aiflicted  of  God,  wounded,  bruised,  chastised, 
covered  with  stripes,  oppressed,  and  carried  as  a  lamb  to 
the  slaughter,  and  taken  from  prison,  but  he  was  cut  off 
out  of  the  land  of  the  limug :  for  the  transgression  of 
my  people  was  he  stricken.  And  he  made  his  grave  with 
the  wicked^  and  with  the  rich  in  his  death  ;  because  he 
had  done  no  violence,  neither  was  there  any  deceit  in  his 
mouth."  Here,  then,  it  is  affirmed  of  the  Messiah  that 
He  should  be  remarkable  in  his  sufferings — that  they 
were  to  end  in  his  death,  and  that  He  was  to  be  buried. 
And  he  made  his  grave  with  the  wicked — that  is,  as 
Bishop  Lowth  translates  it,  his  grave  was  appointed  for 
him—\)j  his  persecutors — with  the  wicked.  It  was  their 
design  to  throw  him  into  the  common  grave  of  malefac- 
tors, without  any  mark  of  respect,  or  means  of  future 
identification.  And  even  if  Lowth' s  rendering  be  not 
received,  still  the  Scriptures  cannot  be  broken.  His 
grave  was  loith  the  wicked  in  this  respect :  the  garden  of 
Joseph  of  Arimathea  was  near  Golgotha,  which  was  pre- 
eminently the  place  of  the  wicked  ;  and  He  was  also  sur- 
rounded and  guarded  by  heathen  soldiers,  and  by  a  most 
ungodly  Jewish  mob.  Verily  his  grave  was  among  the 
wicked. 

3.  The  words  of  the  Psalmist  are  prophetic  of  the  Mes- 
siah, saying :  ''  My  flesh  shall  rest  in  hope,  for  thou  wilt 
not  leave  my  soul  in  hell,  neither  wilt  thou  suffer  thine 
Holy  One  to  see  corruption."     xvi.  9,  10. 

As  this  passage  from  the  Psalms  is  expressly  quoted 
and  made  the  subject  of  comment  and  argument  by  the 
Apostle  Peter,  let  us  turn  tojihfi--ascond  chapter  of  the 


152  OUK    LOKD    CHEIST    BUEIED. 

Acts  of  the  Apostles,  wliere  Peter  is  explaining  and  de- 
fending the  conduct  of  the  Apostles  filled  with  the  Holy 
Ghost  against  the  charge  of  drunkenness,  as  alleged 
against  them  by  the  vain  and  mocking  Jews  on  the  day 
of  Pentecost.  "But  Peter,  standing  up,"  &c.  [Please 
read  verses  14-36.] 

This  discourse  of  Peter  is  full,  clear,  powerful.  It 
proves  the  Jews  had  the  book  of  Joel  and  the  Psalms, 
and  that  the  Psalms  were  ascribed  to  David — that  Joel 
and  David  foretold  Gospel  times,  and  David  expressly 
predicted  the  death  and  burial,  and  yet  not  the 
corruption  of  the  flesh  of  the  Messiah  in  the  grave. 
These  allegations  could  not  be  applied  to  David.  His 
flesh  did  see  corruption.  The  moth  and  the  worm  did 
have  power  over  him,  and  over  every  one  else  that  has 
been  buried  except  Jesus.  "  Therefore  let  all  the  house 
of  Israel  know  assuredly^  that  God  hath  made  that  same 
Jesus,  whom  ye  crucified,  both  Lord  and  Christ."  ver.  36. 

4.  The  only  other  passage  I  have  time  to  refer  to  is 
Matt.  xii.  40,  where  our  Lord  says  :  "For  as  Jonas  was 
three  days  and  three  nights  in  the  whale's  belly," — [and 
here  note,  whale  means  any  great  fish,  the  term  in  the 
original  not  being  definite  as  our  English  name  wliale  is], 
"  so  shall  the  Son  of  man  be  three  days  and  three 
nights  in  the  heart  of  the  earth."  This  must  mean  his 
burial  in  the  grave.  Our  Lord  meant  to  say,  I  will  fulfil 
this  type  of  myself.  And  so  He  did  most  accurately — for 
he  was  laid  in  the  tomb. 

Secondly,  We  are  now  prepared  for  the  statement,  that 
our  Jesus  of  Nazareth^  whom  we  most  surely  believe  to 
be  the  true  Messiah,  was  buried  in  the  very  way  the  Jew- 


BUEIED   ACCOEDma   TO   PEOPHECY.  153 

isTi  writers  foretold  that  their  Messiah  would  he  buried. 
And  this  was  done,  too,  contrary  to  all  ordinary  or  mere 
human  expectations  in  the  case.  As  our  Lord  was  cruci- 
fied on  a  Roman  cross,  and  by  virtue  of  Roman  law,  it 
was  to  be  expected  his  body  would  be  left  to  share  the 
fate  of  the  bodies  of  other  malefactors,  and  have  been 
given  to  the  fowls  of  the  air  or  to  the  beasts  of  the  fields. 
Both  Horace  and  Juvenal^  as  well  as  other  writers,  tell 
us  this  often  happened  to  the  bodies  of  persons  who 
were  executed  on  the  cross.  Sometimes  the  dead  bodies 
were  exposed  in  the  wind  and  weather  until  the  flesh  was 
consumed,  and  a  mere  skeleton  was  left.  Classical  authors 
abound  in  descriptions  of  cases  verifying  each  of  the 
foregoing  statements.  It  is  also  in  evidence  that  among 
the  Romans,  a  guard  was  usually  stationed  around  the 
cross,  lest  a  pitying  hand  should  take  the  body  from  the 
accursed  tree,  and  cover  it  with  earth.  "^ 

First.  Remember  here,  that  it  was  under  the  autho- 
rity of  Roman  law  that  Jesus  was  crucified.  His  body, 
therefore,  on  the  cross,  is  under  the  custody  of  a  Roman 
guard.  Accordingly,  we  find  a  centurion  in  command  at 
the  crucifixion,  t  with  Roman  soldiers,  watching  Jesus. 
And  as  soon  as  Jesus  is  dead,  this  officer  reports  the  fact 
to  Governor  Pilate ;  but  the  watch  still  remain.  How, 
then,  is  Jesus  to  have  a  grave  with  the  rich  ?  Who  is  to 
provide  a  tomb  ?  How  is  his  blessed  body  to  be  obtained 
and  laid  in  it  ?  Here  again,  as  so  often  before,  we  find 
the  wrath  of  man  made  to  praise  God.  They  who  had 
petitioned  for  his  death,  icho  had  always  met  Pilate's 
affirmations  of  Jesus'  innocence,  and  willingness  to  show 


*  Seo  authorities  in  Pearson,  pp.  322,  323,  324. 

f  See  author's  "Centurions  of  the  Gospel" — second  edition  now  in  press,  by 
the  same  publisher. 


154  OUR    LORD    CHRIST    BURIED. 

him  mercy,  with  the  cry  of,  '^  Crucify  Him!  crucify 
Him  P '  now  intercede  that  his  dead  body  may  be  taken 
down  from  the  cross  and  buried.  They  make  no  scruple 
to  have  the  innocent  Jesus  crucified,  yet  they  were  very 
zealous  for  some  of  their  laws.  Their  prejudices  were  so 
bitter  and  their  bigotry  so  malignant,  they  thought  them- 
selves serving  God  by  slaying  his  dear  Son,  and  yet  they 
must  have  the  law  kept  that  required  the  dead  bodies  of 
executed  malefactors  to  be  buried  before  or  by  the  going 
down  of  the  sun  of  the  same  day  of  the  execution  Thus 
they  understood  the  words  of  Moses,  in  Deut.  xxi.  22,  23, 
saying:  "  If  a  man  have  committed  a  sin  worthy  of 
death,  and  he  be  put  to  death,  and  thou  hang  him  on  a 
tree ;  his  body  shall  not  remain  all  night  upon  the  tree, 
but  thou  shalt  in  any  wise  bury  him  that  day."  Accord- 
ingly, under  this  general  law,  and  the  more  especially  in 
this  case,  because  the  next  day  was  an  liigli  day^  that  is, 
one  of  the  Sabbaths,  of  which  there  were  three  in  a  year, 
which  was  called  the  Sabbath  of  the  holy  convocation, 
"  the  Jews  besought  Pilate  that  their  legs  might  be 
broken,  and  that  they  might  be  taken  away."  John 
xix.  31. 

According  to  Lactantius,  it  was  a  kind  of  coup  de 
grace,  and  often  done  to  criminals  on  the  cross,  to  break 
their  legs,  that  they  might  the  sooner  be  put  out  of  pain. 
The  Jews,  in  our  Lord's  case,  did  not  ask  it  to  be  done 
for  this  reason,  but  to  hasten  his  death  by  increasing  his 
sufferings. 

The  day  of  preparation  is  a  well-established  fact  in 
Jewish  history.  In  Josephus  we  have  a  copy  of  an  edict 
of  the  Emperor  Augustus  in  favor  of  the  Jews,  which 
says :  ''No  one  shall  be  obliged  to  give  bail  or  surety  on 
the  Sabbath  day,  nor  on  the  preparation  before  it  after 


THE   JEWISH    HIGH   DAY.  155 

the  ninth  hour."  The  Sabbath  began  at  the  ninth  hour, 
that  is,  at  3  o'clock  the  preceding  evening.  Lightfoot, 
with  many  others,  thinks  it  was  called  '^  a  high  day" — 

1.  Because  it  was  the  Sabbath. 

2.  It  was  the  day  on  which  all  the  people  presented 
themselves  in  the  temple,  according  to  the  word  of  the 
Lord  in  Exo.  xxiii.  17. 

3.  It  was  the  day  on  which  the  slieaf  of  the  first-fruits 
was  offered,  according  to  Lev.  xxiii.  10,  11.  And  in  this 
case  it  is  also  probable  the  Passover  fell  on  that  Sabbath. 
It  was  with  great  emphasis  therefore  a  JiigTi  day.  For 
upon  this  day  this  year  it  happened  that  three  or  four 
solemnities  fell  together. 

Secondly.  You  will  bear  in  mind,  brethren,  that  as 
the  Jews  had  not  the  power  of  life  and  death  in  their 
hands  at  this  time,  so,  although  they  instigated,  conspired 
for,  and  procured  his  death,  yet  he  was  put  to  death  by 
Roman  authority,  and  that  his  body  was  still  in  the 
hands  of  the  Romans  ;  yet  by  Roman  custom  it  was  left 
to  the  option  of  the  magistrate  to  do,  or  allow  to  be  done, 
what  might  seem  good  to  him  with  the  bodies  of  executed 
malefactors.  Pilate  had  power  to  dispose  of  the  body, 
of  Jesus  as  he  pleased.  He  could  have  had  it  burned, 
according  to  Roman  custom,  or  he  could  have  caused 
it  to  remain  on  the  cross  to  be  consumed.  But  the 
disposing  of  the  body  was  not  a  matter  that  gave  him 
any  anxiety.  It  was  required  of  him  that,  in  his  report 
to  the  emperor  at  Rome,  he  should  acquaint  his  imperial 
master  with  the  fact,  that  such  a  person  as  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  was  crucified  on  the  charge  that  he  claimed  to  be 
the  king  of  the  Jews  ;  but  no  report  about  his  body  or 


156  OUR    LOED    CHRIST    BURIED. 

about  his  peculiar  Jewish  notions  was  required.  And 
as  Pilate  had  no  personal  ill-will  against  Jesus,  and 
delivered  him  to  be  crucified  wholly  to  please  the  Jews, 
so  he  had  no  motives  to  gratify  in  refusing  the  request 
that  his  body  might  be  taken  down  from  the  cross  in 
order  to  its  burial.  But  still,  we  are  trembling  as  we 
see  the  three  bodies  taken  down  from  their  crosses,  lest 
the  Scriptures  are  now  to  be  broken.  Is  He  to  make 
his  grave  with  the  same  wicked  persons  with  whom  he 
died  1  For  these  two  thieves  crucified  with  Him,  one  on 
his  right  hand  and  the  other  on  his  left,  the  Jewish 
authorities  have  already  provided  the  appointed  or  usual 
burial-place.  Are  they  going  to  carry  our  Lord's  body 
away  with  them  ?  Is  there  no  help  for  it  1  Will  no  one 
come  to  the  rescue  ?  How  can  we  hope  for  any  one  hav- 
ing wealth  and  influence  now  to  come  forward,  and 
profess  respect  for  the  dead  Christ?  Is  there  any  one 
who  will  be  bolder  for  Him  now  that  He  is  dead,  than 
while  he  was  yet  alive  ?  What  says  the  record  ?  * '  There 
came  a  rich  man  named  Joseph,  a  counsellor:  and  he 
was  a  good  man,  and  a  just : 

51  "(The  same  had  not  consented  to  the  counsel  and 
deed  of  them  :)  he  w^as  of  Arimathea,  a  city  of  the  Jews  ; 
who  also  himself  waited  for  the  kingdom  of  God. 

52  "This  man  went  unto  Pilate,  and  begged  the  body 
of  Jesus. 

53  "And  he  took  it  down,  and  wrapped  it  in  linen, 
and  laid  it  in  a  sepulchre  that  was  hewn  in  stone,  wherein 
never  man  before  was  laid." 

II.  This  brings  me,  in  the  next  place,  to  the  burial 

ITSELF. 

We  have  had  a  Boman  death.     Jesus  was  treated  as 


MAN^NER    OF   HIS    BUEIAL.  157 

a  malefactor  under  judicial  process  and  was  crucified, 
and  so  met  in  His  suffering  and  death  every  requirement 
of  Jewish  prophecy  concerning  the  promised  Messiah  ; 
but  if  the  prophecies  required  a  Homan  malefactor's 
death,  they  quite  as  certainly  call  for  a  Hebreio  burial, 
and  just  such  a  burial  we  have  in  every  particular. 
Our  Lord's  body  was  disposed  of  neither  according  to 
Roman  or  Jewish  custom,  but  precisely  as  the  Prophets 
had  said  the  body  of  the  suffering  and  dying  Messiah 
would  be  disposed  off.  You  have  seen  how  the  body 
was  obtained.  Let  us  now  see  how  it  was  prepared  for  the 
grave ;  how  the  tomb  is  prepared  for  it,  and  the  persons 
who  actually  fulfilled  the  Scriptures  by  burying  Him. 

First.  In  a  Hebrew  burial,  linen  clothes  and  pre- 
cious spices  were  used,  varying  in  quality  and  quantity 
according  to  the  wealth  of  the  parties.  You  have  not 
forgotten,  that  a  woman  having  an  alabaster  box  of  oint- 
ment of  spikenard,  very  precious,  once  came  to  Jesus, 
and  brake  the  box,  and  poured  it  on  His  head  ;  and  that 
Jesus  then  said,  ''She  is  come  beforehand  to  anoint  my 
body  to  the  burying."  Mark  xiv.  3-8.  And  when 
Christ  was  risen,  ''  Mary  Magdalene  and  the  other  Mary 
brought  the  spices  which  they  had  prepared,  that  they 
might  come  and  anoint  Him."  Mark  xv.  1.  Luke 
xxiv.  1. 

Wrapped  it  in  a  linen  cloth.  Such  cloths  were  then 
common,  and  so  were  precious  spices.  Embalming,  it  is 
well  known,  was  common  in  Egypt,  as  we  know  from  its 
monuments  and  mummies,  and  from  the  Bible  history  of 
Jacob  and  Joseph.  Jewish  embalming  differed  in  some 
respects  from  that  of  Egypt,  and  as  it  was  with  the  Egyp- 
tians, so  it  probably  was  with  the  Jews,  their  earlier 
embalming  was  more  costly  than  in  later  times.     Still  the 


158  OUE    LOED    CHEIST    BUEIED. 

hundred  pounds  weigJit  of  the  Evangelist  is  not  too 
nmch.  For,  (1.)  the  fact  itself  of  such  a  quantity  being 
used  is  not  incredible.  Mcodemus  and  Joseph  of  Ari- 
mathea  were  men  of  large  wealth.  And  it  was  proper 
for  them  to  give  some  expression  of  their  respect  for  the 
dead,  by  the  value,  of  the  precious  spices  used  for  his 
burial.  Nor,  (2.)  is  collateral  history  wanting  to  confirm 
our  narrative.  Even  in  2  Chron.  xvi.  14,  we  find  that 
such  a  quantity  of  spices  was  used  that  they  formed 
a  bed  on  which  the  dead  body  was  laid.  *' They  laid 
King  Asa  in  the  bed,  which  was  filled  with  sweet  odors 
and  spices."  And,  according  to  Josephus,  at  the  funeral 
of  Herod  five  hundred  servants  bearing  aromatics  were 
employed,  and  Onkelos  used  80  lbs.  Tyrian  weight  of  the 
most  precious  spices  at  the  funeral  of  Rabbi  Gamaliel 
Senex.^ 

Our  Lord' s  body  was  wrapt  in  the  linen  cloth  with  a 
mixture  of  myrrh  and  aloes,  but  this  was  all  done  in 
great  haste — an  imperfect  embalming.  The  time  was  too 
short  to  perfect  it,  the  Sabbath  was  approaching.  Hence 
the  pious  women  prepared  themselves  for  a  second  em- 
balming as  soon  as  the  Sabbath  should  be  past. 

Thus  we  see  how  the  spices  and  linen  clothes  of  Nico- 
demus  were  used  in  wrapping  the  body  of  Jesus,  just  as 
had  been  done  to  his  friend  Lazarus  of  Bethany,  who, 
when  Jesus  called  him,  "came  forth  bound  hand  and 
foot  with  grave-clothes,  and  his  face  was  bound  about 
with  a  napkin."  John  xi.  44.  And  so  when  "  Peter  went 
into  the  sepulchre,  and  saw  the  linen  clothes  lie,  and  the 
napkin,  that  was  about  his  head,  not  lying  with  the  linen 
clothes,  but  wrapped  together  in  a  place  by  itself." 
John  XX.  6,  7.     See  Pearson  on  Creed,  p.  326. 

See  Witsius,  vol.  ii.  pp.  121-2. 


HIS   PALL-BE AEEES.  159 

Secondly.  Observe,  that  as  our  Lord's  dear  body  was 
carefully  prepared  for  his  burying,  according  to  Hebrew- 
custom,  so  also  a  sepulchre  meeting  the  requirements 
of  our  prophecies  was  also  punctually  prepared.  ''And 
when  Joseph  had  taken  the  body  of  Jesus,  he  wrapped  it 
in  a  clean  linen  cloth,  and  laid  it  in  his  own  new  tomb, 
which  he  had  hewn  out  in  the  rock  ;  and  he  rolled  a  great 
stone  to  the  door  of  the  sepulchre,  and  departed."  Mat- 
thew xxvii.  59,  60,  with  Mark  xv.  ''  For  in  the  place 
where  he  was  crucified,  there  was  a  garden,  and  in  the 
garden  a  new  sepulchre,  wherein  never  man  was  laid, 
which  Joseph  had  hewn  out  of  a  rock  for  his  own  tomb  : 
there  laid  they  Jesus,  and  rolled  a  great  stone  to  the  door 
of  the  sepulchre." 

Thirdly.  The  hearers  and  attendants.,  or  the  persons 
who  fulfilled  the  Scriptures  by  burying  our  Lord^. 

The  history  shows  that  both  our  Lord' s  friends  and 
enemies  agreed  in  begging  for  his  body,  but  from  very 
different  motives.  It  was  of  no  consequence  to  Pilate  to 
distinguish  between  the  friends  and  enemies  of  Jesus. 
Their  different  motives  in  asking  to  have  his  body  re- 
moved were  nothing  to  him.  All  he  cared  to  know  was 
the  fact  that  he  was  really  dead,  and  that  the  crucifixion 
had  taken  place  according  to  Roman  usage,  so  that  his 
report  of  the  case  to  Rome  would  not  bring  him  into 
trouble.  The  persons  begging  for  Jesus'  body  were  in 
his  sight  Jews,  simply  Jews.  Among  them,  first  in  appli- 
cation were  our  Lord' s  implacable  enemies,  who  desired 
that  his  body  should  be  taken  down  from  the  accursed 
tree,  not  out  of  any  respect  to  Him  or  sympathy  for  his 
friends,  but  for  fear  the  land  should  be  defiled  ;  and  they 
were  the  more  importunate  because  of  the  approach  of  a 
high  Sabbath  day.     Nor  is  it  improbable  that  their  con- 


160  OUR    LOED    CHRIST    BURIED. 

sciences  began  to  sting  them  for  what  they  had  done, 
and  that  they  were  therefore  anxious  to  remove  their 
victim  out  of  their  sight  by  removing  it  away  from 
public  view. 

And  now  just  at  this  time,  when  our  Lord's  enemies 
are  asking  for  his  dead  body,  and  Pilate  has  made  him- 
self sure  that  He  is  really  dead,  and  shows  a  willingness 
to  consign  the  bodies  of  the  malefactors  to  Jewish  treat- 
ment, a  rich  man,  an  honorable  counsellor,  that  is,  a 
member  of  the  Sanhedrim,  and  Nicodemus,  also  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Great  Sanhedrim,  supported  by  a  company  of 
pious  women,  beg  that,  as  Jesus'  friends,  they  may  have 
the  custody  of  his  dear  body.  Their  object  is  to  show 
respect  and  to  bury  it.  Our  Lord's  enemies,  being  satis- 
fied that  He  Was  really  dead,  have  no  zeal  for  his  body, 
except  to  avoid  breaking  the  law  by  its  remaining  on  the 
Cross  ;  they  therefore  relinquish  it,  and  the  more  readily 
because  no  doubt  Pilate  preferred  to  accommodate  parties 
so  honorable,  influential,  and  wealthy  as  Nicodemus  and 
Joseph  of  Arimathea,  and  such  a  company  of  women. 
They  beheld  the  crucifixion  afar  off:  The  soldiers  and 
the  crowd  of  surging  people  keep  them  at  a  considerable 
distance ;  but  still  they  showed  more  courage  and 
greater  affection  for  Jesus  than  his  disciples,  did  who  had 
vowed  they  would  rather  die  with  him  than  forsake  him. 

Joseph  of  Arimathea  was  a  rich  man,  a  good  and  just 
man,  and  an  honorable  counsellor.  He  was  a  man  of 
high  rank  and  respectability.  He  belonged  to  Rama  in 
the  tribe  of  Benjamin,  but  his  residence  was  now  in 
the  City  of  Jerusalem.  Nicodemus  was  also  a  member 
of  the  Sanhedrim— the  same  who  came  to  Jesus  by 
night,  and  who  believed  upon  Him,  but  did  not  confess 
Him  openly  during  his  lifetime,  for  fear  of  the   Jews, 


WHY    WAS    CHRIST   BURIED.  161 

who  said  that  whoever  did  confess  him  should  be  a 
cast-out. 

A  Divine  Providence  is  seen  in  the  character  of  these 
men.  The  Apostles  could  not  so  properly  ask  permission 
to  bury  their  Master,  lest  the  Priests  and  Pharisees,  who 
fabricated  the  story  about  the  stealing  away  of  his  body, 
should  have  alleged  he  had  never  been  buried  at  all.  It 
was  well,  just,  and  proper  that  such  men  as  these — men  of 
culture  and  social  position,  rank,  and  wealth,  should  get 
possession  of  the  body  and  give  it  an  honorable  burial. 

III.  Why  was  Christ  buried  f  Seeing  He  was  so 
soon  to  rise  from  the  dead,  why  was  there  any  funeral 
at  all  ?    Our  answer  is — 

1.  To  fulfil  the  types  and  prophecies,  and  to  prove  that 
Jesus  was  the  true  Messiah. 

2.  To  prove  thereby  that  he  really  was  dead, — that 
there  could  not  be  any  mistake  about  it.  'Not  can  any 
more  vital  reason  than  this  be  given,  for  on  the  reality  of 
his  death  depends  the  perfection  of  his  sacrifice  as  our 
Priest,  and  the  fact  of  his  resurrection.  The  truth  of 
Christianity  depends  upon  the  reality  .of  Christ's  death, 
burial,  and  resurrection.  If  these  are  not  facts,  just  as  our 
Creed  afiirms,  and  as  the  Scriptures  teach,  then  we  are 
yet  in  our  sins.  Tliese  are  the  most  important  subjects 
we  can  possibly  think  of,  or  devote  our  attention  to. 
Since  so  much  depends  on  his  death,  if  we  may  so  speak, 
abundant  proof  of  it  should  be  given,  and  this  proof 
should  be  as  convincing,  clear,  and  powerful  as  it  can  be 
in  the  nature  of  the  case,  and  the  nature  of  the  human 
mind  considered.  And  such,  we  maintain,  is  the  evidence 
before  us  of  the  death  and  burial  of  Jesus  Christ.     He 

11 


162  OUR    LORD    CHRIST    BURIED. 

bowed  his  head  and  gave  up  the  ghost.  His  enemies 
exult ;  his  friends  mourn.  Both  are  convinced  he  is 
really  dead.  The  Roman  soldier  makes  it  doubly  certain 
by  an  awful  cut  in  his  side,  that  brings  out  both  blood 
and  water.  And  here  also,  note  how  Providence  pro- 
tects the  Scriptures,  and  turns  their  fulfilment  so  point- 
edly on  Jesus.  He  was  to  be  pierced,  and  not  a  hone  of 
him  V)as  to  he  hroJcen  ;  and  an  ignorant  Roman  soldier, 
unbidden,  fulfils  both  requirements.  The  soldier  is  sent 
to  break  his  bones,  but  he  disobeys  his  commander— and 
does  what  he  was  not  sent  to  do.  And  yet  both  his  diso- 
bedience of  his  lieutenant,  and  his  voluntary  piercing  of 
the  dead  body  of  Jesus,  were  necessary  to  prove  that  He 
was  the  Messiah.  A  simple  and  direct  proof  of  the  reality 
of  his  death  is  therefore  given  in  his  burial. 

3.  Such  a  distinct  statement  of  our  Lord's  burial 
assists  us  to  comprehend  more  clearly  his  Hypostatical 
or  Personal  union :  His  two  natures  in  one  person.  His 
death  did  not  consist  in  the  separation  of  his  Divinity 
from  his  humanity,  but  in  the  dissolution  of  his  soul  from 
his  body,  so  that  it  was  the  true  and  proper  body  of  the 
Son  of  God  that  was  laid  in  the  tomb. 

4.  Christ' s  burial  has  its  place  and  influence  in  our 
Lord' s  great  worTc  of  redemption.  His  estate  of  humilia- 
tion was  completed  by  being  brought  to  the  dust  of  death. 
The  English  Litany  well  says:  ''We  invoke  Him,  by 
the  mystery  of  Thy  Holy  Incarnation,  by  Thy  holy  na- 
tivity and  circumcision,  by  Thy  Cross  and  Passion,  by 
Thy  precious  death  and  burial."  And  although  I  am 
not  ready  to  believe  that  every  act  of  Jesus  has  a  sacra- 
mental influence  in  our  salvation,  still  I  think  Augustine's 
words  on  this  point  are  worthy  of  attention.  "What- 
ever," says  he,   "was  done  on  the  Cross  of  Christ,  at  his 


BURIED    TO    COI^^QUEE.  163 

l3urial,  at  His  rising  the  third  day,  at  His  ascension  into 
heaven,  and  sitting  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  were  so  done 
that  mystically,  not  in  words  only,  but  in  actions,  the 
Christian  life  here  below  is  depicted.  For  we  that  are 
Christ's,  *  have  crucified  the  flesh  with  the  affections  and 
lusts.'  '  If  ye  then  be  risen  with  Christ,  seek  those 
things  which  are  above,  where  Christ  sitteth  at  the  right 
hand  of  God.'  " 

5.  The  distinction  of  the  parties  who  honored  our 
Saviour  by  burying  him,  and  the  new  tomb,  and  the  place 
where  it  was,  and  its  being  a  tomb  hewn  out  of  the  living 
rock,  in  which  no  man  had  ever  been  laid,  all  contributed 
to  make  our  Lord's  death  more  widely  known  at  the 
time,  and  more  fully  to  demonstrate  the  truth  of  his  resur- 
rection, as  stated  by  his  friends. 

6.  Again,  Christ's  burial  is  specific  and  emphatic,  in 
order  that  correct,  sweet,  and  proper  thoughts  may  be 
connected  with  our  meditations  upon  the  grave.  Arch- 
bishop Leighton  expresses  this  reason  somewhat  in  this 
way :  For  the  further  assurance  of  his  death,  and  the 
glory  of  his  resurrection,  as  likewise  to  commend  the 
grave  itself  to  us,  as  now  a  very  sweet  resting-place.  He 
hath  warmed  the  cold  bed  of  the  grave  to  a  Christian,  so 
that  he  need  not  fear  to  lie  down  in  it,  nor  doubt  but  that 
he  shall  rise  again  from  it,  after  our  Lord's  example. 

When  He  was  laid  in  the  tomb.  He  went  to  conquer 
Death  in  his  own  dominion — as  if  by  man' s  sin  death  was 
an  enthroned  dragon,  and  the  grave  was  his  den — a 
loathsome  place  of  indescribable  terror ;  but  our  Lord 
went  into  it,  grappled  with  him  there,  overcomes  him, 
and  so  conquers  that  henceforth  he  is  not  an  enemy,  but 
a  benefactor  to  all  Christ' s  friends — a  mere  door-keeper 
to  open  the  way  for  them  to  glory,  or  to  provide  for  them 


164  OUR    LORD    CHRIST    BURIED. 

a  bed  to  rest  on.  When  believers  die,  they  do  but  go 
into  Christ's  bed,  where  he  lay  before  them.  Accord- 
ingly, St.  Stephen's  death  is  described  as  a  falling  on 
sleep,  and  the  grave  was  known  among  the  early  Chris- 
tians as  a  resting-place.  Indeed,  our  name  Cemetery  is 
the  Greek  word  for  a  resting-place,  or  a  place  to  sleep  in 
and  be  refreshed — in  which  to  wake  up  and  go  forth  to  a 
more  vigorous  and  happy  life. 

lY.  The  practical  uses  of  this  part  of  the  Article 
are  easily  stated. 

I.  The  narrative  of  our  Lord' s  burial  is  full  of  instruc- 
tion. It  gives  us  distinct  information  as  to  the  certainty 
of  his  death.  Pilate  would  not  allow  Joseph  to  take  pos- 
session of  our  Lord's  body  till  after  he  had  made  careful 
inquiry  respecting  his  death,  and  was  well  certified  of 
the  fact.  Mark  xv.  44,  45.  Nor  was  it  enemies  that 
buried  Jesus,  who  might  have  been  so  anxious  to  get  rid 
of  a  disagreeable  job,  that  they  would  not  hesitate  to  lay 
him  in  the  sepulchre  half  alive.  It  was  Ms  friends  who 
had  charge  of  his  body  and  directed  his  burial,  and  we 
are  sure  they  were  well  satisfied  that  there  was  no  longer 
a  breath  of  life  in  him.  He  was  really  dead  ;  and  his 
literal  burial  was  necessary  to  complete  his  humiliation. 
It  was  thus  that  He  descended  into  the  lower  parts  of  the 
earth. 

II.  The  burial  of  our  Lord  is  a  clear  and  certain  proof 
that  his  work  of  expiation  has  been  thoroughly  performed 
and  the  curse  abolished  by  His  death.  In  his.  humiliation 
He  endured  the  wrath  of  God  due  to  us  for  our  sins.  As 
the  hanging  on  the  tree  fulfilled  the  curse,  so  the  burial  of 
the  body  denoted  that  the  curse  was  exhausted.  The  pen- 
alty could  not  go  beyond  death.  Our  Lord' s  sleep,  there- 
fore, in  the  tomb  was  sweet  to  him.     He  then  rested  from 


BEJSTEFITS   TO   US,  165 

his  labors,  that  had  heen  indeed  great  and  long  in  their 
accomplishment,  but  were  now  thoroughly  and  well  done. 
The  law  called  for  the  shedding  of  blood,  and  blood  has 
been  shed.  The  law  called  for  the  death  of  the  sinner  ; 
and  here  is  the  death  of  his  voluntary,  able,  and  accepted 
surety.  And  in  our  surety' s  burial  our  sins  were  buried. 
They  are  removed  from  God's  sight,  and  covered  over, 
so  that  we  are  justified  by  believing  in  Him. 

III.  And,  thirdly^  by  his  burial  we  have  assurance 
also  of  complete  sanctification.  It  was  our  old  nature 
that  He  look  on  him,  out  of  the  flesh  and  blood  of  the 
blessed  Virgin  Mary,  and  it  was  in  this  nature  He  *'  suf- 
fered, was  crucified,  dead  and  buried."  By  his  death 
He  broke  the  tyranny  of  sin,  by  which  the  devil  held  us 
captive  ;  and  when  He  was  laid  in  the  grave.  He  buried 
the  mortal  flesh  that  He  might  raise  it  in  newness  of  life 
unto  eternal  blessedness.  This  is  the  Christian's  true  and 
only  life — to  be  dead  with  Christ  and  buried  with  Him, 
and  risen  with  Him  to  the  life  of  God — a  life  with  Christ 
in  God. 

It  was  thus  that  He  pursued  Death  to  the  remotest 
and  strongest  corner  of  his  dark  castle,  and,  conquering 
him  in  his  own  fortress,  sanctified  the  grave,  so  that  it 
becomes,  like  Esther's  spice-baths,  a  resting-place  for 
our  bodies,  until  they  are  called  forth  to  be  perfumed 
and  anointed,  and  we  awake  to  behold  God's  face  in 
righteousness,  and  to  be  satisfied  with  his  likeness. 

lY.  Here  is,  therefore,  an  illustration  of  our  Lord's 
complete  sympathy  with  Ms  people.  As  the  Father  hath 
loved  Him,  so  He  loves  them,  and  He  not  only  gave  his 
life,  but  also  his  death  for  them.  There  is  no  kind  of 
trial  nor  form  of  suffering  through  which  they  are  called 


166  OUE    LORD    CHRIST   BURIED. 

to  pass,  that  He  has  not  passed  through  himself  on  his 
way  to  victory  and  glory.  ''In  that  He  himself  hath 
suffered,  being  tempted,  He  is  able  to  succor  them  that 
are  tempted."  Here,  then,  dear  child  of  God,  only  be 
careful  -  to  remember  your  glorious  Leader  ; — tempted, 
weak,  afflicted,  mourning,  remember  how  your  blessed 
Lord  endured  for  your  sake.  Only  imitate  Him — receive 
the  cup  your  Heavenl}^  Father  gives  you  ;  and  when  you 
come  to  pass  into  the  dark  shadow  of  death^  go  as  your 
Lord  did,  commending  your  soul  to  God,  and  say,  O 
death,  where  is  thy  sting  ?  O  grave,  where  is  thy  vic- 
tory? Thanks  be  to  God,  which  giveth  us  the  victory 
through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Y.  The  example  of  Joseph  of  Arimathea  and  Nicode- 
mus,  and  the  pious  women  who  showed  their  veneration 
for  the  dead  Christy  should  quicken  our  faith  and  zeal, 
and  increase  our  love.  We  may  not  be  able,  like  Con- 
stantine,  to  build  a  cathedral  in  honor  of  his  tomb,  nor 
to  burn  incense  and  costly  spices  in  our  places  of  worship 
in  memory  of  his  embalming — such  service  He  has  not 
asked  from  us  ;  but  He  does  require  our  hearts  and  our 
lives.  The  most  costly  spices  and  the  most  magnificent 
temples  are  not  as  precious  in  his  sight  as  faith,  love,  and 
charity.  I  do  not,  however,  envy  the  man  so  devoid  of 
the  religion  of  places  as  to  have  no  emotions  on  visiting 
the  reputed  tomb  of  Jesus.  It  is  of  very  little  conse- 
quence whether  the  holy  sepulchre  is  the  precise  tomb, 
or  covers  the  exact  spot  where  Jesus  was  buried.  It 
stands  for  that  sacred  place.  And  as  we  do  not  worship 
the  material  wooden  cross,  but  Him  who  died  on  the 
cross,  so  we  do  not  worship  the  marble  tomb  in  the 
church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  but  Him  who  was  cruci- 
fied, dead  and  buried,  as  our  Mediator,  and  of  Avhose 
burial  this  is  the  local  commemoration.     Nor  need  we 


ARE   WE    EISEX    WITH    CUEIST.  167 

go  as  pilgrims  to  the  Holy  Land  in  order  to  receive  the 
benefits  of  our  Lord's  death  and  burial.  From  the  his- 
tory before  us,  we  have  such  an  account  as  to  put  us  into 
living  communion  with  Him  whom  these  weeping  women 
and  their  rich  friends  buried  in  Joseph's  tomb  in  the  gar- 
den. "  By  virtue  of  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  on  the  cross, 
our  old  n?an  is  crucified,  dead  and  buried  with  him,  that 
so  the  corrupt  inclinations  of  the  flesh  may  no  more  reign 
in  us  ;  but  that  we'  may  offer  ourselves  unto  him  a  sacri- 
fice of  thanksgiving."     Heidelberg  Catechism. 

But  oh  !  my  brethren,  it  were  a  vain  and  useless  thing 
for  us  merely  to  investigate  the  historical  accuracy  of  the 
narrative,  of  our  Lord' s  sufferings  and  death,  and  to  take 
our  views  of  Calvary  just  as  we  do  of  any  other  mere 
historical  place.  Is  there  not  something  exceedingly  pre- 
cious in  the  blood  of  Christ  ?  Are  we  not  closely  related 
to  Him  who  was  crucified,  dead  and  buried  ?  AVas  he  not 
God-man,  our  Mediator,  and  did  He  not  die,  and  was  He 
not  buried /or  us  ?  Truly  may  we  say,  all  other  miracles 
grow  dim  before  the  Cross.  The  Cross  shines  all  others 
into  shade  and  darkness.  What  in  all  the  universe  is  of 
equal  value  with  the  blood  of  the  Son  of  God  ?  Well 
may  we  say  (as  a  great  French  preacher  does),  "  Ye  other 
miracles,  wrought  in  favor  of  our  souls  !  ye  astonishing 
prodigies  that  confirm  the  Gospel !  je  great  and  terrible 
signs  of  the  second  coming  of  the  Son  of  God  !  vanish  all 
of  you  before  the  Cross  !  This  glorious  light  makes  your 
glimmering  vanish  ;  and  after  my  imagination  is  filled 
with  the  tremendous  dignity  of  this  sacrifice,  I  can  see 
nothing  great  besides." 

But  what  is  the  sepulchre  to  the  ungodly  ?  It  is  dark- 
ness, and  worms,  and  corruption,  and  the  doorway  to 
hell.  The  grave  is  a  terrible  place  to  them  who  are  out 
of  Christ.     Death,  in  respect  to  them,  is  but  the  arresting 


168  OUR    LORD    CHRIST    BURIED. 

sergeant  of  the  Judge.  The  grave  is  Ibut  a  prison  to  keep 
their  bodies  in,  to  secure  them  against  the  great  day  of 
trial.  If  the  grave  is  but  a  perfumed  bed  for  the  saints 
to  rest  on  until  they  are  called  to  see  the  King  in  His 
beauty,  and  enter  into  His  kingdom,  so  it  is  only  a  dark 
and  loathsome  dungeon  for  the  wicked  till  they  are  called 
to  hear  their  doom,  and  go  to  their  awful  execution. 

"  The  hour  is  coming,  and  now  is,  when  the  dead 
shall  hear  the  voice  of  the  Son  of  God :  and  they  that 
hear  shall  live.  Marvel  not  at  this  :  for  the  hour  is  com- 
ing, in  the  which  all  that  are  in  the  graves  shall  hear  his 
voice,  and  shall  come  forth  :  they  that  have  done  good, 
unto  the  resurrection  of  life  ;  and  they  that  have  done 
evil,  unto  the  resurrection  of  damnation." — John  v.  25-29. 


THE  DECENT   INTO   HELL.  169 


IX 


"HE    DESCENDED    INTO  HELL." 


It  is  my  purpose  now,  if  the  Lord  be  pleased  to  con- 
tinue his  blessing  upon  us,  to  ask  your  attention  to  the 
Urst  part  of  tlie  flfth  Article  of  our  Creed  just  recited : 
'-'  ^e,"  that  is,  ''  Jesus  Christ,  God's  only  Son,  our  Lord, 
who  was  conceived  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  born  of  the  Virgin 
Mary,  suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate,  was  crucified,  dead 
and  buried  :  He  descended  into  helV^  I  do  not,  as  is  my 
custom,  name  any  text  of  holy  Scripture  this  evening, 
because  I  cannot  find  one  that  teaches  what  these  words 
of  the  Creed  are  generally  supposed  to  mean,  if  they  are 
received  in  their  popular  or  usual  sense.  Even  St. 
PauVs  language  in  Ephesians,  about  Christ' s  descending, 
do  not  affirm  that  He  descended  after  his  death  into  hell, 
Nor  does  St.  Peter  say  in  his  sermon  on  the  day  of  Pente- 
cost that  Jesus  descended  into  hell.  He  says  that  the 
16tli  Psalm  is  a  prophecy  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  and 
proves  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  the  Christ,  the  true 
Messiah.  And  it  is  candid  also,  to  admit,  that  the  words 
of  the  Psalmist  applied  to  Jesus  :  ^'Thou  wilt  not  leave 
my  soul  in  hell,"  do  imply  that  in  some  sense  He  was  in 
hell,  for  if  He  was  not  left  in  hell^  He  must  once  have 
been  there.  There  is  a  sense,  then,  in  which  the  Creed 
does  affirm  that  Christ  descended  into  hell.     What  is  this 


170  "he   DESCEi^DED    INTO    HELL." 

sense,  and  is  it  true  ?  Is  it  according  to  the  Scriptures  ? 
As  tlie  words  :  "He  descended  into  hell,"  are  not  found 
in  the  Bible  applied  to  Messiah,  who  is  called  Christ,  in 
the  sense  attached  to  them  by  the  Church  of  Rome,  it  is 
important  for  us  to  ascertain,  if  possible,  the  sense  in 
which  this  Article  is  to  be  received  as  containing  the  truth 
of  God.  The  meaning  of  the  word  Tiell^  and  of  de- 
scended^ will  come  more  appropriately  under  discussion 
in  another  place,  and  an  examination  of  those  passages 
of  Scripture  which  it  is  alleged  teach  the  literal,  local 
descent  of  Christ  into  hell,  and  so  authorize  the  doctrine 
of  Purgatory  and  its  kindred  errors,  I  must  reserve  for 
the  next  Discourse. 

It  is  not  surprising  this  Article  of  our  Creed  should 
have  attracted  great  attention  and  given  rise  to  much 
learned  discussion,  and  yet,  perhaps,  there  never  was  a 
time  when  it  was  more  worthy  of  attention  tlian  the 
present.  The  current  of  religious  thought  in  our  day  is 
so  spasmodic  and  unsettled,  that  a  subject  of  this  nature 
receives,  perhaps,  greater  attention  because  it  is  obscure, 
and  the  terms  in  which  the  doctrine  is  taught  are  harsh 
and  repulsive.  And,  besides,  important  doctrines  are 
supposed  to  depend  upon  the  interpretation  of  this 
Article.  In  a  general  way^  we  may  say  the  Church  of 
Rome,  the  Lutheran  Church,  and  a  portion  of  the  High 
Church  party  of  England  are  arranged  on  one  side  in  the 
discussion,  and  almost  all  other  branches  of  the  Church 
are  on  the  other  side.  The  most  learned  men,  and  men 
of  the  greatest  intellect  and  culture  of  the  last  generation 
and  of  the  present,  have  given  their  profoundest  investi- 
gations to  this  subject. 

In  the  works  of  Barrow  and  Lightfoot,  Pearson  and 
Burnet,  Witsius  and  Harold  Browne,  and  the  late  Arch- 
bishop Whately,  we  have  learned,  able,  and  exhaustive 


DIFFICULTIES   OF   THIS    SUBJECT.  lYl 

dissertations  on  this  Article  or  kindred  topics.  Almost 
every  actual  or  possible  side  of  the  questions  involved  is 
presented,  and  yet,  after  one  has  toiled  through  them  all, 
it  is  very  much  to  be  doubted  whether  he  is  really  any 
wiser,  or  any  better  satisfied,  than  he  was  when  he  began 
his  investigations.  All  learning  is  not  wisdom.  Nor  are  we 
all  able  for  all  things.  One  of  the  great  Calvin' s  best  say- 
ings is,  that  *'  God  has  not  given  it  to  any  one  man  to  know 
all  the  truth."  On  many  subjects,  as  if  to  mock  the  pride 
of  human  intellect,  it  is  still  true  that  ignorance  is  bliss. 
The  indefinite  and  unsatisfactory  results  of  the  learning, 
time,  and  talents  that  have  been  spent  on  this  subject  may 
be  accounted  for,  perhaps,  by  remembering  that  great  and 
good  men  are  not  always  free  from  bigotry  and  prejudice. 
Their  investigations  are  often  carried  on  to  support  certain 
dogmas  of  faith  or  peculiar  views,  and  every  thing  is  seen 
with  that  coloring  on  it  which  favors  them.  The  great 
authors  I  have  named,  and  many  others  might  be  added, 
scarcely  agree  on  the  leading  points  of  this  Article,  and 
yet  they  do  not  so  differ  as  to  materially  affect  a  single 
doctrine  or  precept  of  the  Gospel  which  is  in  order  to 
salvation.  Again,  a  great  difficulty  in  all  discussions  of 
this  kind  is  to  determine  the  meaning  of  the  terms  used  in 
presenting  the  doctrine,  and  its  explanation  ;  and  in  this 
particular  case  the  difficulty  is  increased,  from  the  fact 
that  the  terms  used  are  taken  from  four  different  languages 
embracing  in  their  range  of  historic  signification  a  period 
of,  let  us  say,  three  or  four  thousand  years  ;  and  these 
terms  are  used,  moreover,  in  different  senses  in  our  his- 
toric documents  even  in  the  same  age,  and  greatly  modi- 
fied in  their  meaning  by  the  subjects  to  which  they  are 
applied,  and  their  adjuncts.  And  let  it  also  be  distinctly 
kept  in  mind,  that  we  are  not  obliged  to  believe  any  doc- 
trine or  Article  of  faith  simply  because  it  is  in  the  Cate- 
chism, Creed,    Confession,   or  Thirty-nine  Articles,  but 


172  *^HE   DESCENDED   mTO    HELL." 

because  it  is  tauglit  in  the  Word  of  God.  And  if  there  is 
any  doctrine  in  our  formularies  that  is  contrary  to  the 
Word  of  God,  I  do  not  and  will  not  believe  it — though 
all  the  patriarchs  and  czars  of  Russia,  and  all  the  empe- 
rors, popes,  and  councils  and  convocations  and  assemblies 
on  earth  should  affirm  it. 

In  order  to  be  brief  and  as  easily  understood  as  I  can 
in  my  presentation  of  such  a  subject,  the  following 
method  is  proposed  :  namely, 

I.  A  condensed  history  of  the  Article. 

II.  Endeavor  to  ascertain  historically,  and  from  the 
Scriptures,  the  meaning  of  the  terms  used. 

III.  Examine  briefly  some  of  the  passages  of  Scrip- 
ture alleged  to  teach  the  literal,  local  descent  of  Christ 
into  hell,  and  which  are  thus  perverted  to  the  support  of 
the  doctrine  of  Purgatory,  and  kindred  follies  which  are 
subversive  of  salvation  by  grace.  This  last  head  must, 
however,  lie  over  altogether,  for  the  evening  of  next 
Lord' s  day. 

I.  Then  let  us  attempt  a  condensed  notice  of  the  history 
of  the  Article  itself.  The  words:  "He  descended  into 
hell,"  do  not  appear  to  have  had  a  place  in  the  most 
ancient  Creeds,  either  private  or  public,  and  consequently 
their  authority  and  meaning  have  been  much  disputed 
in  ancient  times  among  the  Fathers,  just  as  they  are  now 
among  learned  men.  It  may  not  be  for  our  edification  in 
this  presence,  to  attempt  an  exhaustive  review  of  the  opin- 
ions and  explanations  that  have  been  given  of  it.  And  in 
view  of  the  confusing  and  unsatisfactory  nature  of  the 
results  obtained  by  those  who  have  engaged  so  labori- 
ously and  so  learnedly  in  the  investigations  of  this  Article, 
I  have  often  been  ready  to  wish  that  our  Creed,  like  that 


PREACHING  ON  THE  CREED.  173 

of  Nice,  had  omitted  the  words  altogether,  or  that  some 
Scriptural  and  definite  interpretation  had  been  affixed  to 
them.  Still,  I  do  not  feel  myself  at  liberty  to  pass  over 
these  words  altogether,  however  difficult  they  may  be, 
or  however  unsuccessful  I  may  be  in  presenting  my 
thoughts  concerning  them,  because  they  occur  in  the 
symbolic  books  of  all  Christendom,  and  are  taught  by 
the  catechisms  in  our  schools  and  in  our  families  by  every 
Church  of  the  Keformation  as  well  as  by  the  Church  of 
Rome.  Formerly  it  was  the  custom,  in  all  the  Reformed 
churches,  for  their  ministers  to  read  the  Scriptures 
regularly  and  in  course,  and  to  explain  the  Catechism 
systematically  and  regularly  before  their  congregations 
on  the  Lord's  day.  And  to  aid  them  in  this  method 
of  instruction,  and  so  secure  an  intelligent  acquaintance 
of  the  people  with  the  Articles  of  our  holy  religion,  and 
promote  as  far  as  possible  a  uniform  and  Scriptural  expo- 
sition of  God's  truth,  summaries  of  Christian  doctrine — 
epitomes  or  heads  of  our  great  common  faith — were 
drawn  up  and  printed  for  the  use  of  ministers.  Nume- 
rous works  of  this  kind  were  published  in  Holland  and  in 
Great  Britain.  The  late  Dr.  A.  Alexander,  of  Princeton, 
N.  J.,  prepared  a  synopsis  of  Bible  Truth,  or  of  Chris- 
tian doctrines  of  this  character  ;  and  in  former  years,  and 
in  fact  until  quite  a  recent  period,  the  greatest  theologians 
and  the  men  of  most  mind  and  culture  employed  them- 
selves a  great  deal  in  preparing  catechisms  and  abstracts 
of  Bible  truth  for  the  young. 

"  The  Institutes  of  Christian  Doctrines,"  by  the  "  great 
theologian,"  John  Calvin,  were  prepared  professedly  as 
a  Commentary  on  the  Apostles'  Creed. 

Many  of  our  best  bodies  of  Divinity,  or  treatises  on 
Theology,  have  been  written  on  and  according  to  the  order 


174  "he  descended  into  hell." 

and  arrangement  of  the  Catechism,  or,  more  "briefly,  of 
the  Apostles'  Creed.  Originally  it  was  made  the  duty  of 
our  brethren,  the  Pastors  of  the  Reformed  Dutch  Church, 
to  go  through  the  exposition  of  the  Catechism  containing 
our  Creed  once  every  year,  each  of  the  fifty-two  Sabbaths 
having  such  a  part  assigned  to  it  as  would  enable  them 
to  accomplish  it  in  the  year  ;  but  this  has  been  changed 
so  as  to  require  the  Pastors  of  the  Dutch  Church  in 
America  to  complete  this  exposition  only  once  every  four 
years,  so  that  now  a  lecture  of  this  kind  about  once  a 
month  is  substituted  for  one  every  Sabbath.  Still  this  is 
better,  far  better,  than  the  total  neglect  of  such  lectures 
by  perhaps  all  the  other  churches.  Once  a  month  is 
better  than  not  at  all.  How  far  the  preaching  of  the  fun- 
damental doctrines  of  the  Gospel  has  been  discontinued — 
to  what  extent  the  regular  systematic  teaching  of  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Bible,  as  presented  in  our  Catechism,  and 
authorized  by  the  standards  of  the  Church,  has  been  neg- 
lected— and  how  far  this  neglect  has  led  to  the  apostasy 
of  the  times,  to  the  decay  of  family  religion  and  the  prevail- 
ing of  false  doctrines,  you  have  as  good  an  opportunity  to 
judge  as  I  have.  And  while  I  assume  not  to  be  a  monitor 
to  my  brethren,  nor  will  I  bring  any  railing  accusations 
against  them,  I  must  say,  that  it  seems  to  me  the  root  of 
all  the  calamities  of  the  times,  and  the  fruitful  source  of 
the  prevailing  irreligion  and  infidelity  and  awful  extrava- 
gance and  licentiousness  of  our  day,  is  in  a  great  measure 
owing  to  the  decline  of  fundamental  religious  truth — the 
Truth  of  God' s  Word  ;  and  this  decline  among  the  people 
is  in  a  great  measure  to  be  laid  to  the  charge  of  the 
ministers  who  have  ceased  to  preach  it. 

As  to  the  Article :  ^'He  descended  into  Tiell,^''  we 
have  no  knowledge  of  any  writer  before  Buffln,  in  the 
beginning  of  the  fifth  century,  who  speaks  of  it  as  a  part 


HOW    THIS    ARTICLE   COMES.  175 

of  the  Creed  of  Christians.  He  tells  us  it  was  neither  in 
the  symbol  of  the  Church  of  Home,  nor  in  the  symbols 
of  any  of  the  Oriental  churches  before  his  day  ;  but  says 
he  found  these  words :  He  descended  into  hell^  in  the 
symbol  of  the  Church  at  Aquileia,  a  large  city  in  the 
northern  part  of  Italy,  immediately  following,  as  in  our 
Creed,  the  words,  was  dead  and  'buried.  The  words  as 
he  gives  them  are  :  Descendit  ad  inferna^  which  he  says 
are  borrowed  from  St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians. 
But  JRuffin  himself  explains  Paul  and  the  Creed  as  speak- 
ing of  Christ' s  'burial. 

It  is  confidently  affirmed,  by  men  qualified  to  make 
such  an  affirmation,  that  there  is  no  mention  of  such  a 
doctrine  as  that  Christ  descended  into  Jiell^  in  the  sense  put 
upon  these  words  by  the  Church  of  Rome,  by  any  of  the 
Fathers  or  Councils  of  the  Church  for  at  least  four  hun- 
dred years  after  Christ.  Although  Irenseus,  Tertullian, 
Clement  and  Origen,  Ambrose  and  Augustine, "^  seem  to 
have  believed  in  an  intermediate  kind  of  state  into  which 
our  Lord  descended, — which  they  speak  of  as  the  invisible 
state,  where  men  are  after  death,  and  concerning  which 
they  seem  neither  to  have  held  nor  to  have  been  able  to 
give  any  very  definite  expressions, — still,  they  know  no- 
thing of  any  draught  or  copy  of  the  Apostles'  Creed  that 
contains  the  words :  He  descended  into  hell. 

The  first  place,  then,  we  find  these  words,  or  their  fair 
equivalent,  in  use  as  a  part  of  the  Creed  of  the  Church 
was  at  Aquileia,  about  four  hundred  years  after  Christ, 
After  this,  but  whether  before  the  beginning  of  the  eighth 


*  Augustine  even  went  so  far  as  to  say  that  nobody  but  an  unbeliever  could 
deny  the  descent  of  Christ  into  hell.  But  he  gives  no  proof  from  Scripture  nor 
from  ancient  Creeds  of  the  doctrine.  Nor  does  he  explain  the  sense  he  attached 
to  these  words.     What  did  he  mean  by  them  f 


176  *^HE   DESCENDED    INTO   HELL." 

century  we  cannot  say,  this  Article  was  inserted  in  the 
Creed  of  the  Church  of  Kome,  where  it  remains  to  this 
day,  and  is  acknowledged  as  a  part  of  the  Apostles' 
Creed,  adopted  by  all  our  churches.  The  Church  of 
England  at  the  Reformation  received  three  Creeds,  in  two 
of  which  this  Article  is  contained.  These  three  Creeds  are 
the  Apostles'  Creed,  the  Nicene,  and  the  so-called  Atha- 
nasian.  The  Article  is  in  the  Apostles'  Creed  as  received 
by  the  Church  of  England,  and  in  the  Creed  of  Athanasius, 
also  received  by  that  Church,  but  is  not  in  the  Nicene  or 
the  Constantinople  Creeds.  In  the  service  of  the  Protest- 
ant Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  there  are  two 
Creeds,  the  Apostles'  Creed  and  the  Nicene  Creed,  as 
modified  by  the  Fathers  of  Constantinople.  The  words, 
He  descended  into  hell,  are  not  in  this  Creed.  And  in  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer,  before  the  Apostles'  Creed,  are 
these  words  of  direction  :  "  Then  shall  be  said  the  Apos- 
tles' Creed,  minister  and  people  standing.  And  any 
churches  may  omit  the  words  :  He  descended  into  hell,  or 
may,  instead  of  them,  use  the  words :  He  went  into  the 
place  of  departed  spirits,  which  are  considered,  as  words 
of  the  same  meaning  in  the  Creed." 

As  just  intimated,  the  Apostles'  Creed,  including  these 
words,  is  in  our  Catechism,  and  in  the  symbols  of  all  the 
churches  of  Christendom  ;  the  expositions  of  them,  how- 
ever, are  not  all  alike.  ''He  descended  into  hell"  is 
explained  in  our  standards  and  by  a  marginal  note  to 
mean :  '*  He  continued  in  the  state  of  the  dead  and 
under  the  power  of  death  until  the  third  day."  And  the 
answer  to  the  fiftieth  question,  larger  Catechism,  says, 
"  This  is  the  meaning  of  the  words.  He  descended  into 
hell."  The  third  Article  of  the  Church  of  England, 
which  is  the  same  in  the,  Episcopal  Church  of  this 
country,  is  in  these  words :  "As  Clirist  died  for  us,  and 


THIS    AETICLE    IN   ENGLAND.  177 

was  buried  ;   so  also  it  is  believed  that  He  went  down 
into  hell." 

This  Article,  in  the  time  of  King  Edward  YL,  was 
much  fuller  than  it  is  now.  These  words  were  added  to  it : 
''That  the  body  of  Christ  lay  in  the  grave  until  His  resur- 
rection ;  but  His  spirit,  which  he  gave  up,  was  with  the 
spirits  which  were  detained  in  prison,  or  in  hell,  and 
preached  to  them,  as  the  place  in  St.  Peter  testiheth." 
This  was  in  a.  d.  1552,  in  the  seventh  year  of  the  reign  of 
King  Edward  YI.  But  ten  years  after,  in  the  synod  under 
Queen  Elizabeth,  the  Article  was  adopted  as  it  now  stands. 
As  expressed  in  King  Edward' s  day  it  was  determinate  in 
its  meaning,  but  as  now  used  it  is  wholly  indefinite,  and 
very  free  and  general,  and  may  mean  almost  any  thing. 

Perhaps  it  is  asked,  why  were  these  words  inserted,  or 
why  are  they  retained  in  the  Creed  ? 

The  reasons  why,  or  the  object  in  view  for  inserting 
them,  I  think  may  be  briefly  stated  in  this  way. 

1.  It  was  felt  to  be  a  necessity  to  state  something 
concerning  our  Lord's  place  of  existence  and  actions 
during  the  time  that  transpired  between  His  burial  and 
His  resurrection.  The  words  incorporated  into  the  Creed 
were  regarded  as  the  best  form  of  expressing  what  was 
thought  to  have  been  the  universal  or  almost  universal 
belief  of  the  Fathers ;  and  yet,  as  there  was  a  want  of 
certainty  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  terms,  or  as  to  the 
doctrine  intended  to  be  expressed  by  them,  the  Article 
was  left  liable  to  a  very  general  interpretation,  just  as  it 
was  in  England  under  Elizabeth.  The  leading  minds  of 
Christendom  could  agree  on  the  form  of  words  as  a  whole, 
but  could  not  and  did  not  agree  in  the  details,  or  reasons 
given  for  believing  it.  This  is  seen  in  the  history  of  the 
great  Council  of  Nice.     See  our  Appendix. 

12 


178  "he  descended  into  hell." 

2.  It  seemed  necessary  to  be  thus  full  and  compre- 
hensive in  declaring  the  true  faith  concerning  our  Lord' s 
death  and  burial,  in  order  to  meet,  deny,  and  refute  the 
extraordinary  conceits  and  false  doctrines  of  those  who 
from  the  times  of  the  Apostles  themselves  had  denied 
our  Lord's  human  nature.  It  is  well  known  that  spuri- 
ous gospels  filled  Christendom  through  all  the  early  cen- 
turies of  the  Church  ;  and  strange  as  it  may  seem,  yet  it  is 
believed  to  be  true,  that  in  the  first  ages  of  the  Christian 
Church  it  was  not  our  Lord's  Divinity,  so  much  as  his 
real  proper  humanity,  that  was  the  subject  of  the  chief 
controversies.  It  was  not  the  reality  of  his  miracles  that 
was  denied,  so  much  as  the  source  of  the  power  by  which 
He  wrought  them. 

3.  I  understand,  therefore,  that  this  Article  was  in- 
tended to  mean  that  Christ  fulfilled  all  the  conditions  of 
his  covenant  in  taking  our  place  and  dying  for  us.  It  is 
not  so  much  the  design  of  the  Article  to  explain  what 
those  conditions  are,  or  what  they  required  of  Him,  as  it 
is  to  declare  that  He  did  faithfully  and  fully  comply  with 
ail  his  engagements,  whatever  they  may  have  been.  The 
words,  "  He  descended  into  hell,"  as  used  by  the  Fathers 
generally,  and  in  the  Creed,  I  understand,  therefore,  to 
mean,  that  He  underwent  whatever  was  predicable  of 
man' s  dissolution — whatever  was  true  of  any  man  as  to 
the  absolute  separation  of  his  soul  from  the  body,  and  the 
independent,  existence  of  the  soul  when  out  of  the  body, 
was  true  as  to  the  separation  of  the  soul  of  Christ  from 
his  body. 

When  Adam  our  progenitor  died,  his  body  was  buried  ; 
so  when  Christ  died,  his  body  was  buried.  When  Adam 
died  his  soul  went  to  God  ;  and  when  Christ  died  his  soul 
went  to  God.    But  as  Christ  conquers  death  and  sin,  and 


SHEOL,   HADES,    INFERIS-A.  179 

gains  a  complete  victory  over  Satan,  so  Christ's  body 
does  not  see  corruption,  as  Adam's  did,  nor  does  his  soul 
remain  in  the  invisible  world  without  his  body,  as  ours 
do,  waiting  for  the  resurrection  of  the  last  day.  Our 
Lord  Christ  fulfilled  the  twofold  conditions  required  in 
man's  dying,  and  then  resumed  his  proper  and  true  char- 
acter by  rising  from  the  dead  to  die  no  more — rising  be- 
fore his  body  could  see  corruption. 

II.  Having  thus  briefly  taken  an  historic  view  of  the 
Article,  let  us  now  investigate,  a  little  after  the  same 
manner,  the  history  and  meaning  of  the  terms  used.  The 
word  hell^  in  the  English  version  of  our  Creed,  corresponds 
to  Inferi  or  inferna  in  Latin,  Hades  in  Greek,  and  SJieol 
in  Hebrew.  I  do  not  say  it  is  proper  to  use  these  words 
always  as  interchangeable.  I  do  not  say  they  are  always 
synonymous,  or  that  there  is  no  shade  of  difference  in 
their  meaning,  according  to  their  respective  derivations, 
nor  that  these  terms,  in  their  respective  languages,  have 
not  undergone  considerable  changes,  meaning  sometimes, 
and  in  some  places,  something  a  little  different  from  what 
they  meant  at  other  times,  and  in  other  places.  This  is 
true  of  many  words  in  all  languages.  It  must  be  true 
of  all  languages  having  words  that  can  be  used  to  convey 
sense  at  all.  Still,  we  may  venture  to  say  there  is  a  re- 
markable correspondence  between  the  Hebrew  Sheol,  the 
Greek  Hades,  the  Latin-Greek  Inferi^  and  our  English 
or  Saxon  Hell,  both  in  their  etymologies  and  history. 
SJieol  is  believed  to  come  from  SJiaal,  ''to  ask,  seek," 
especially  in  reference  to  finding  a  place,  or  ascertaining 
the  nature  of  a  thing — meaning,  it  is  out  of  the  way,  and 
to  find  it  and  see  it,  one  must  seek  for  it.  The  Greek 
Hades  is  from  a,  which  is  privative — a  negative,  meaning 
not^  and  i^siv,  to  see — not  to  see—^'ilnQ  unseen" — ''that 
which  is  invisible"— and  was  used  among  them  for  the 


180  "he  descen^ded  into  hell" 

abode,  receptacle,  or  mansion  of  the  dead,  and  changing 
what  the  religious  opinions  of  the  two  nations  requires  to 
be  changed.  Where  the  Hebrews  used  Sheol^  the  Greeks 
used  Hades,  Inferna^  Iiiferi,  is  Latin,  borroAved  from  the 
Greeks,  haying  the  same  general  meaning — the  unseen — 
and  applied  by  the  Romans  to  those  beneath  the  earth, 
the  manes,  or  spirits  of  the  dead.  And  our  English 
word  Hell  is  from  the  Saxon  liel-an^  to  hide,  or  to  cover, 
having  the  same  root  as  lioll^  a  cavern  or  a  Jiole,  and  as 
Hel-yer^  a  roofer,  one  that  covers,  and  hence  also  that 
which  is  covered — the  thing  or  the  place  that  is  covered. 
In  some  parts  of  England  to  this  day  the  slating  or  tiling 
of  the  covers  of  their  houses  are  called  their  Jiel-ings.^ 
There  is,  then,  a  remarkable  similarity  in  the  etymological 
meaning  of  the  words  Sheol^  Hades^  Infern%  and  Hell^  as 
seen  in  the  roots  from  which  they  are  derived.  They  all 
agree  in  signifying  hidden,  covered,  unseen,  secret,  invisi- 
ble. And  the  correspondence  between  these  terms,  his- 
torically examined,  is  quite  as  remarkable,  and  the  more 
remarkable  because  the  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin  are  now 
dead  languages.  Concerning  Slieol^  I  design  to  speak  in 
another  place.  And  as  we  have  no  use  for  the  Yulgate  in 
this  discussion,  I  say  nothing  further  of  the  Latin  Inferi. 
But  it  is  well  to  remember  that  the  Septuagint,  the  Greek 
version  of  the  Bible,  generally  uses  Hades  as  equivalent 
to  Slieol.  It  is  found  eleven  times,  if  I  am  not  mistaken, 
in  the  Greek  Testament,  signifying  not  the  past  simply, 
perhaps  never,  but  a  dark  place,  invisible,  what  is  cov- 
ered, unknown,  or  known  vaguely — a  darkness,  a  place 
in  which  one  cannot  see  for  the  want  of  light — especially 
the  unknown  future  state,  including  the  grave,  which  is 
the  abode  of  the  dead.     In  the  2d  chapter  of  Acts,  Hades 


*  See  Dr.  A.  Clarke  on  Matthew  xi.  23.    Bishop  Harold  Browue,  also,  on  this 
particular. 


» 


EXTENT  OF  SHEOL  OR  HADES.  181 

is  the  translation  of  8heol  from  the  16th  Psalm,  and  in  the 
places  where  it  is  found  in  the  book  of  Revelation,  it  is 
connected  with  death,  and  the  result  of  death,  namely,  the 
grave.  And  in  the  glorious  passage  :  0  grave^  where  is 
thy  victory^  the  original  of  Paul  is  Hades. 

In  considering  historically  the  word  Hades  among  the 
Greeks,  we  find  them  using  it  for  the  grave,  and  also  for 
the  place  to  which  the  spirits  or  manes  of  the  dead  went 
after  their  burial.  Their  belief  was,  like  that  of  the 
Egyptians,  that  the  unburied  were  detained  on  the  Styx ; 
while  the  buried  passed  over  and  mingled  with  the 
souls  of  men  detained  there  in  a  state  separate  from  their 
bodies.  Hades  was  in  fact  represented  by  the  Greeks  as 
the  Deity  who  presided  over  these  realms,  comprising 
both  the  happy  fields  of  Elysium  and  the  gloomy  realms 
of  Tartarus.  Every  one  who  is  familiar  with  classic 
authors  knows  tliat  the  souls  of  the  good  were  in  Ely- 
sium, while  such  wicked  spirits  as  Ixion,  Tantalus,  and 
the  Danaids  were  grievously  tormented  in  Tartarus.  So 
the  Odyssey  and  JGneid  everywhere.  Quotations  are 
unnecessary. 

And  so  the  Hebrew  Sheol  was  applied  to  the  whole 
region  below  the  surface  of  the  earth,  extending  down- 
wards indefinitely  or  inconceivably,  and  meaning  a 
vast  extension,  ill-dehned,  dark,  desolate,  and  dungeon- 
like, and  called  a  pii^  a  deep  pit,  or  covered  place,  an 
abyss,  the  darkness,  the  depths  of  the  earth.  Thus 
Jonah  (ii.  2)  says:  "Out  of  the  belly  of  hell  cried  I, 
and  thou  heardest  my  voice."  Here  hell  in  Hebrew  is 
Sheol,  and  the  Prophet  must  have  meant  out  of  the 
whale's  stomach,  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea.  He  was  out 
of  human  sight,  in  a  terrible  place,  and  in  a  fearful 
condition.  And  not  to  dwell  on  other  places,  take  Ps. 
16th,  ver.  10 :  For  Thou  wilt  not  leave  my  soul  in  hell^ 


V  E  i^  •«>  A  i  A  \i 


182  "he  desceis^ded  into  hell." 

which  is  explained  according  to  Hebrew  idiom  hy  the 
corresponding  clause  :  neither  wilt  thou  suffer  thine  Holy 
One  to  see  corruption.  That  is,  thou  wilt  not  leave  me 
under  the  power  of  death  ;  and  Ps.  cxli.  7  ;  "  Our  bones 
are  scattered  at  the  mouth  of  the  grave" — Sheol ;  and  also 
xlix.  14:  ^'Like  sheep,  they  are  laid  in  the  grave" — 
Sheol.  That  is,  says,  Witsius,  they  die  like  sheep,  which 
are  not  usually  buried,  and  which  surely  do  not  penetrate 
into  the  hell  of  the  lost,  or  into  what  is  called  a  Lirnbus. 
And  Hezekiah  and  Jacob  both  use  Sheol  for  the  grave. 
Is.  xxxviii.  10  ;  Gen.  xxxvii.  35.  ^'I  said,  in  the  cutting 
off  of  my  days,  I  shall  go  to  the  gates  of  the  grave" — 
Sheol.  ' '  I  will  go  down  into  the  grave — Sheol — to  my  son 
mourning."  Clearly  meaning  the  state  of  tlie  dead — to  be 
among  the  dead — equivalent  to  gathered  to  one's  fathers. 
According  to  this  usage,  and  the  old  Hebrew  idiom,  if  we 
wished  to  say  Christ  was  buried,  and  was,  while  He  remain- 
ed in  the  grave,  and  in  the  state  of  the  dead,  in  the  same 
condition  as  the  Patriarchs  and  Prophets  were  when  they 
died,  we  could  not  use  more  appropriate  words  than  He 
descended  into  Sheol^  Hades,  And  St.  Peter  in  his  dis- 
course on  the  day  of  Pentecost  quotes  from  the  16th  Psalm, 
and  uses  Hades  for  Sheol,  where  it  must  be  admitted  the 
meaning  is  the  state  or  condition  of  departed  spirits — the 
invisible  world  where  the  dead  are.  True,  Hades  among 
the  Greeks  was  a  very  comprehensive  word.  It  com- 
prised the  place,  condition,  and  state  both  of  the  wicked 
and  of  the  good.  It  included  Tartarus  for  the  wicked, 
and  Hlysium  for  the  good.  Our  Lord,  in  Matt.  xi.  23, 
says:  "And  thou,  Capernaum,  which  art  exalted  unto 
heaven,  shaltbe  brought  down  to  hell."  Here  hell  is  in 
opposition  to  heaven,  and  both  are  used  figuratively. 
Great  privileges  enjoyed  but  abused  lead  to  utter  desola- 
tion, and  irretrievable  ruin.  In  this  text  the  original 
word  for  hell  is  Hades. 


HADES    IN   EEVELATION.  183 

And  in  Rev.  i.  18  :  "  I  am  He  that  liveth,  and  was  dead ; 
and,  behold,  I  am  alive  for  evermore,  Amen ;  and  have 
the  keys  of  hell  and  of  death."  Here  hell  is  Hades— and 
means  not  the  place  of  departed  spirits,  but  the  grave^  in 
a  general  sense.  And  in  vi.  8 :  ''And  his  name  that  sat 
on  him  was  death,  and  hell  followed  with  him."  Here 
Hades  is  hell — clearly  meaning  the  grave^  the  state  of  the 
dead,  into  which  the  slain  entered.  And  xx.  13,  14  : 
''And  the  sea  gave  up  the  dead  which  were  in  it ;  and 
death  and  hell  delivered  up  the  dead  which  were  in 
them ;  and  they  were  judged  every  man  according  to 
their  works.  And  death  and  hell  were  cast  into  the  lake 
of  fire.  This  is  the  second  death."  Here  it  is  clear  that 
death  is  personified,  and  represented  as  the  keeper  or 
jailer  of  the  dead,  and  Hades  is  the  general  name  for  the 
place  of  the  spirits  of  the  dead.  The  sea  and  death  have 
the  bodies  of  the  dead,  and  Hades  holds  their  souls,  and 
both  give  up  their  wards,  and  the  bodies  and  souls  are 
united,  and  enter  upon  their  eternal  and  unchangeable 
destiny,  after  the  general  resurrection  and  the  judgment 
of  the  great  day.  And  as  to  St.  Peter's  quotation  of  the 
16th  Psalm,  it  is  to  be  observed  that  he  applies  these 
words,  with  his  own  peculiar  energy  and  directness  of 
purpose,  in  such  a  way  as  to  prove  the  resurrection  of 
Christ,  by  showing  that  they  were  not,  and  could  not 
be  true  when  applied  to  King  David,  but  that  they  were 
emphatically  and  undeniably  true  when  applied  to  Jesus  ; 
for  that  "his  soul  was  not  left  in  Hades,  nor  did  his  flesh 
see  corruption,"  where  it  is  plain  he  means  that  David's 
soul  did  remain  in  Hades,  and  his  flesh  did  see  corrup- 
tion. David  was  not  himself  the  Messiah  ;  but  as  Christ 
fulfilled  these  requirements,  He  was  the  Messiah.  And 
here  soul  being  for  person^  and  Hades  for  the  grave,  the 
last  clause  is  explanatory  of  the  first,  in  the  sense  I  have 
attached  to  the  words  of  the  Creed.    And  the  point  of  the 


184  "he  descended  into  hell." 

argument  lies  clearly  in  the  miracle  of  the  resurrection, 
which  is  true,  because  our  Lord's  soul,  his  perfect  human 
nature,  did  not  remain  in  the  grave,  and  under  the  power 
of  death,  and  consequently  his  body  did  not  see  corrup- 
tion. As  He  is  the  second  Adam,  the  Lord  from  heaven, 
who  died  for  us,  meeting  the  curse  of  temporal  death  on 
the  first  Adam,  so  his  body  and  his  soul  passed  into  and 
through  the  same  state  that  our  souls  and  bodies  do 
when  we  die — changing  what  is  to  be  clianged,  because 
He  was  the  immaculately  Holy  Son  of  God.  Our  bodies 
see  corruption,  our  souls  do  not  come  back  and  reanimate 
our  bodies.  They  remain  in  the  spirit- world.  But  Christ 
rose  from  the  dead,  having  his  perfect  human  nature,  both 
body  and  soul,  in  union  with  Divinity. 

Whatever,  then,  may  be  the  derivation  of  the  word 
Sheol,  or  however  varied  its  signification,  all  agree 
that  it  is  used  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures  for  the  state  and 
abode  of  the  dead,  and  hence  that  it  means  the  grave  in 
which  the  body  rests,  and  the  invisible  world  to  which 
our  souls  go  when  they  leave  the  body  in  death.  The 
poetical  description  of  the  gates  of  defi^^h  implies  that  it  is 
something  more  than  the  grave.  It  is  true,  there  are  other 
Hebrew  words  for  the  grave,  and  for  pit,  corruption,  and 
burying,  and  sepulchre  ;  but  still  it  is  true,  that  in  many 
passages  Sheol  must  mean  the  grave,  the  invisible  world, 
the  state  and  abode  of  the  dead,  as  a  state  and  a  place 
distinguished  from  the  present  life.  Any  Hebrew  Con- 
cordance or  Dictionary  will  assist  the  reader  to  the 
places. 

On  the  whole,  it  seems  to  me  the  Creed  must  be  taken 
either  figuratively  to  mean,  that  Christ  endured  in  his 
soul,  while  still  in  the  body,  the  agonies  of  hell ;  or  that 
the  words.  He  descended  into  hell,  must  mean  that  his 
body  was  buried,  and  his  soul  went  to  God,  so  that  He 


Calvin's  exposition.  185 

completed  his  work  for  us  by  dying  just  as  we  do.  The 
first  of  these  views  just  named,  the  figurative  or  meta- 
phorical interpretation  of  the  Article,  is  adopted  by  the 
great  Witsius,  and  many  others. 

According  to  this  view  the  meaning  is,  that  not  only 
was  the  body  of  Christ  given  up  for  our  redemption,  bat 
that  His  soul  suffered  the  tortures  of  condemned  and 
ruined  men.  This  view  is  taken  by  the  authors  of  the 
Heidelberg  Catecliism^  in  answer  to  44th  Question,  where 
it  is  said  the  words,  '*  He  descended  into  hell,  are  added, 
that  in  my  greatest  temptations  I  may  be  assured  and 
wholly  comfort  myself  in  this,  that  my  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
by  his  inexpressible  anguish,  pains,  terrors,  and  hellish 
agonies,  in  which  He  was  plunged  during  all  his  suffer- 
ings, but  especially  on  the  cross,  hath  delivered  me  from 
the  anguish  and  torments  of  hell." 

This  was  the  exposition  of  the  Reformers  generally. 
Calmn  says,  that  our  Lord's  descent  to  hell  means  not 
his  going  to  the  place  of  spirits,  but  His  suffering  upon 
earth,  in  Gethsemane  and  on  the  cross,  all  the  torments 
of  hell  and  the  sufferings  of  damned  souls.  And  it  is 
thought  it  was  owing  to  the  growing  popularity  of  Cal- 
vin's  views  in  England,  during  Elizabeth's  reign,  that  the 
Article  put  forth  in  King  Edward's  reign  suffered  the 
change  we  have  already  referred  to.  But  although  this 
is  the  view  of  Calvin  and  a  great  many  of  the  Reformers, 
I  am  not  satisfied  that  it  is  the  meaning  of  the  Creed,  or 
according  to  the  Word  of  God.  Those  who  hold  this 
view  do  not  agree  in  telling  us  what  Christ  did  suffer. 
They  tell  us  He  suffered  the  extreme  wrath  of  God,  or 
the  very  torments  of  hell  in  his  soul,  and  some  of  them 
that  liis  soul  actually  went  to  Gehenna,  the  place  of  the 
damned,  and  suffered  there  its  extreme  torments.  This 
view  I  cannot  receive  for  before  our  Lord  couli  actually 


186  "he  descended  into  hell.". 

suffer  the  torments  of  lost  souls,  He  must  feel  the  con- 
sciousness of  personal  guilt  and  degradation,  as  well  as 
the  superadded  wrath  of  God.  As  I  understand  the 
Word  of  God,  this  consciousness  of  degradation — this 
feeling  of  personal  guilt— is  the  essence  of  the  fire  un- 
quenchable, the  life  of  the  worm  that  dieth  not.  Now, 
as  a  lamb  at  the  temple  bore  the  sins  of  the  people,  so 
Christ  bore  our  sins.  But  was  the  lamb  guilty  of  sin  ? 
'No.  The  lamb  bore  the  curse  of  sin,  endured  the  wrath 
of  God  as  to  the  penalty  it  met ;  but  there  was  no  trans- 
fer of  personal  guilt  to  the  lamb.  In  fact,  the  lamb  was 
not  punished  at  all.  The  lamb  was  sacrificed.  So  Christ 
suffered,  but  He  was  not  punished.  He  endured  the 
wrath  of  God  due  to  our  guilt,  not  due  to  himself  It  was 
our  debt,  not  His  own,  which  He  paid.  He  died  as  our 
substitute  and  in  our  place,  but,  according  to  our  view  of 
the  atonement,  it  was  impossible  for  Christ  to  suffer  the 
actual  torments  of  hell,  or  to  endure  in  his  person  the 
agonies  of  lost  souls  in  Gehenna.  Perhaps  we  may  say 
He  suffered  the  equivalent  of  them  for  his  people,  but 
not  the  actual  torments  of  the  lost ;  for  the  torments  of  the 
damned  consist — 

1.  In  a  consciousness  of  personal  guilt — a  feeling  that 
they  themselves  deserve  all  that  is  inflicted  on  them,  both 
as  to  degradation  and  suffering.  This  our  Lord  could 
never  experience.  There  was  not  and  could  not  be  any 
transfer  of  personal  guilt  to  Him,  but  only  the  transfer  of 
obligation  to  pay  a  debt  or  endure  a  penalty. 

2.  The  torments  of  hell  comprise  utter  despair.  Dole- 
ful region  ;  no  hope  ever  enters  there  !  This  cannot  be 
said  of  our  Lord' s  sufferings. 

3.  Hell  is  total  separation  from  God,  without  any 
glimpse  of  his  favor.     Now,  as  it  is  impossible  to  apply 


TIIEEE   CREEDS   EXAMINED.  187 

these  things  to  Christ,  I  do  not  believe  that  the  great  men 
who  explain  the  Creed  as  teaching  metaphorically  that 
Christ  endured  the  torments  of  hell  for  the  elect,  are  cor- 
rect. If' the  time  allowed  it,  much  more  might  be  said 
on  this  point ;  but  this  must  suffice,  at  least  for  the  pres- 
ent.    [See  Pearson  and  Lightfoot  on  this  point.] 

The  other  view  to  which  I  alluded  a  few  minutes 
since,  and  which  is  the  one  I  adopt,  namely,  that  Christ 
died  and  was  buried,  and  his  soul  went  to  God,  and  that 
this  is  simply  all  the  Creed  means  and  all  that  the  Scrip- 
tures teach,  is  sustained,  I  think,  very  satisfactorily,  and 
in  this  way  : 

1.  There  is  no  passage  of  Holy  Scripture  that  teaches, 
when  properly  explained,  that  Christ  either  endured  the 
actual  torments  of  hell,  or  locally  descended  to  the  place 
of  damned  souls.  This  statement  I  am  obliged  for  the 
present  to  assume,  but  if  the  Lord  be  pleased  to  give  us 
his  assistance,  I  will  try  to  prove  it  in  the  next  Discourse. 

2.  It  has  been  proved  that  the  descent  into  hell  is  not 
found  as  a  separate,  distinct  Article  in  any  of  the 
earlier  Creeds.  It  is  not  in  any  copy  or  draught  of  the 
Apostles'  Creed  in  use  in  the  Eastern  or  the  Roman 
churches  for  at  least  four  hundred  years  after  Christ.  It 
is  not  in  the  Creed  of  Irenseus,  nor  of  Tertullian,  Origen, 
or  Cyprian.  It  is  not  in  the  Nicene  Creed  adopted  in 
A.  D.  325,  nor  in  the  version  of  the  Nicene  Creed  used 
by  the  Fathers  of  Constantinople.  The  words  of  the 
Nicene  Creed  are  :  "He  suffered  and  was  buried,  and  the 
third  day  He  rose  again."  But  in  the  Creed  called  the 
Creed  of  Athanasius,  of  the  year  A.  d.  333,  eight  years 
later,  we  read :  "Who  suffered  for  our  sins,  descended 
into  liell^  rose  again  the  third  day."     Here  observe  that 


188 

loas  buried  is  omitted,  and  descended  into  hell  is  used  in 
its  place,  clearly  showing  that  these  phrases  were  then 
supposed  to  be  synonymous.  How  the  doctrine  that 
Christ  descended  into  hell,  in  the  sense  of  the  Church  of 
Rome,  ever  got  into  the  Apostles'  Creed,  nobody  knows, 
but  certainly  it  was  not  there  before  the  tifth  century, 
and  possibly  not  until  long  after.  We  have  the  opinion 
of  Erasmus,  that  it  was  not  formally  adopted  till  long 
after. 

It  is  to  be  remembered  here,  that  almost,  perhaps,  all 
of  the  old  creeds  that  recognize  the  descent  into  hell  in 
any  way,  explain  it  as  meaning  the  same  thing  as  Heioas 
buried.  The  creeds  that  contain  these  words,  ''He  de- 
scended into  hell,"  omit  the  words,  "He  was  buried  ;" 
while  those  that  have  the  words,  "  He  was  buried,"  omit 
the  other  words,  "  He  descended  into  hell."  It  is  fairly  \ 
concluded,  therefore,  that  the  one  phrase  was  equal  in 
meaning  to  the  other,  and  varied  merel}^  as  a  matter  of 
taste.  "The  churches  of  the  East  originally  understood 
by  Christ's  descent  into  hell,  just  what  the  churches  of 
the  West  called  his  burial."^ 

Tlie  only  difference,  according  to  the  view  I  have, 
between  the  phrases :  "Christ  was  buried,"  and,  "Christ 
descended  into  hell,"  when  properly  understood,  is  this: 
The  latter  w^ords  have  a  wider  meaning,  and  are  to  be 
referred  partly  to  his  body  and  partly  to  his  soul ; 
whereas  the  words  was  buried  are  limited  to  the  body, 
and  do  not  go  beyond  the  grave.  And  this  is  the  main 
reason  for  retaining  the  words  in  the  Creed,  as  we  now 
have  it.  The  expressions  used  are  emphatic  as  to  the 
reality  of  our  Lord's  death  and  burial.  They  affirm 
that  his  death  was  a  real  human  death.     His  soul  was 


♦Vossius. 


CHANGES    IN   WOEDS.  189 

separated  from  his  body,  just  as  our  soul  is  at  death,  and 
his  body  was  buried,  and  his  soul  went  to  God,  and 
remained  with  Him  until  the  morning  of  the  third  day, 
and  then  returned  and  resumed  his  body.  And  all  this 
is  for  our  comforf,  and  the  assurance  of  complete  redemp- 
tion. Let  us  repeat.  Our  view  (1.)  is  according  to  the 
draughts  or  versions  of  all  the  known  creeds  of  the 
Churches  for  four  or  live  hundred  years  after  Christ.  (2.) 
In  itself  it  is  true,  and  contains  nothing  but  the  truth : 
namely,  that  Christ's  body  was  buried,  and  his  soul  went 
immediately  at  death  to  God.  And,  allow  me  to  say, 
(3.)  That,  while  this  view  can  be  shown  to  be  in  har- 
mony with  the  Word  of  God,  and  the  analogy  of  our 
holy  Faith,  that  the  other,  and  all  other  interpretations, 
as  far  as  I  am  able  to  comprehend  them,  break  down — 
utterly  break  down,  when  tested  by  common  sense, 
reason,  and  the  Bible.  And,  (4.)  It  may  be  important, 
in  view  of  the  historic  sketch  we  have,taken  of  the  terms 
used  in  the  Creed,  to  observe  distinctly,  that  words 
change  their  meaning,  even  in  the  same  language,  in  pass- 
ing from  one  generation  to  another,  and  are  even  shaded 
or  modified  by  their  adjuncts  in  the  same  age  and  country. 
There  are  many  instances  of  this  in  our  own  language. 
Take  a  single  example.  Knave  originally  meant  a  boy, 
a  young  man,  then  a  servant,  and  now  a  rogue.  It 
is  now  always  used  in  a  bad  sense,  yet  there  was  a 
time  when  it  was  used  precisely  as  we  use  the  word 
servant.  The  words  of  our  translation,  '^  Paul,  a  servant 
of  the  Lord,"  in  old  versions  is,  "  I,  Paul,  a  knave  of  the 
Lord."  A  similar  change  has  come  over  the  word  hell. 
It  has  been  shown  that  it  corresponds  in  its  original  sig- 
nification to  Infer ni^  Hades ^  and  Bheol^  and  like  them 
has  passed  through  several  modifications,  until  now  its 
common  literal  signification  is  the  place  of  the  damned — 
the  home  of  Satan,  and  the  central  seat  of  his  empire.     It 


190  "he  descei^ded  into  hell. 


»5 


does  not  seem  to  us  that  the  Creed  meant  to  say,  or  that 
the  Scriptures  allow  us  to  believe,  that  Jesus  Christ,  at 
his  death,  went  to  Satan's  home.  The  word  "hell"  in 
the  Creed  is,  then,  to  be  understood  in  its  historic  sense, 
and  not  as  now  popularly  applied.  The  original  Saxon, 
we  are  told,  meant  to  hide,  and  then  the  place  where  a 
thing  was  hidden,  a  hole,  a  cavern,  and  hence  the  com- 
mon idea  of  hell  even  now  is  associated  with  a  pit,  a  hole, 
a  gloomy  cavern. 

Thus  we  have  "hell's  gate,"  "hell's  mouth,"  and 
the  like  popular  expressions.  The  word,  therefore, 
means  both  the  place  of  the  dead  and  the  place  of  the 
punishment  of  the  wicked.  The  primary  idea  was  the 
place  of  the  dead,  in  a  very  general  sense,  the  unseen, 
unknown  "bourne"  beneath  the  earth,  or  in  the  invisible 
state,  from  which  "  no  traveller  returns"  to  give  us  a  de- 
scription of  it.  The  Hebrews  had  two  words  for  which 
our  translators  have  used  but  one.  For  Gehenna  and 
Sheol  our  translators  used  the  same  word,  hell^  which, 
when  it  is  the  translation  of  Gehenna^  is  to  be  taken  in 
its  secondary  sense  of  the  place  of  the  future  eternal  pun- 
ishment of  the  wicked ;  but  when  our  translators  used 
hell  for  Sheol^  then  it  means  the  region  beneath  the 
ground,  the  grave,  the  place  of  the  dead,  the  unseen 
world,  which  is  the  primary  sense  of  the  word.  We 
must  not,  therefore,  confound  Sheol  and  Hades  and  Hell 
in  the  sense  of  the  grave,  the  unseen  world,  with  Gehenna^ 
or  the  place  and  condition  of  lost  souls.  I  do  not, 
indeed,  regard  the  doctrine  of  a  future  state,  or  of  the 
future  and  eternal  punishment  of  the  wicked,  as  depend- 
ing essentially  upon  the  critical  examination  of  words  ; 
but  still  it  is  fair  and  proper  to  observe,  that  we  do 
not  depend  upon  the  use  of  the  terms  "Sheol"  and 
"  Hades  "  by  the  sacred  writers  for  our  knowledge  of  the 


OUR  loed's  paeadise  is  heaven.  191 

nature  and  intensity  or  duration  of  the  punishment  of 
the  ungodly  after  death.     The  awful  realities  awaiting 
impenitent,  unbelieving  souls  at  death  are  spoken  of  in 
God's  Word  in  terms  of  no  doubtful  meaning,  and  are 
proved  and  explained  by  the  Bible  as  a  whole.     And, 
(5.)  That  the  soul  is  separate,  and  different  from  the  body, 
and  at  death  leaves  the  body  altogether,  but  still  exists, 
and  does  not  go  to  sleep  or  sink  into  an  unconscious  state. 
It  returns  to  God  who  gave  it,  in  just  as  literal  a  sense  as 
the  body  returns  to  dust  whence  it  was  taken.     And  the 
state  of  happiness  succeeding  immediately  after  death  to 
the  souls  of  the  pious  is  called  Paradise,  which  is  heaven, 
or  at  least  a  part  of  heaven,  and  is  the  same  thing  as  a 
being  present  with  the  Lord  ;  while  the  souls  of  the  wicked 
go  at  death  into  torment,  which  is  hell — but  neither  the 
wicked  nor  the  pious  receive  their  tinal  and  full  reward 
until  the  resurrection  and  the  general  judgment,  when 
the  soul  is  united  to  the  body.     I  believe,  therefore,  in  an 
intermediate   state — not    as    a    half-way  stopping-place 
between  heaven  and  hell — not  a^  3i  Limbus  Patrum,  or 
Purgatory,  out  of   which  souls  may  be   delivered    by 
masses,  or  the  intercession  of  saints  and  angels  ;  but  as 
the  iirst  degrees  of  glory  or  of  perdition,  which  are  as  it 
were  preparatory  to  the  final  consummation  of  bliss  or 
misery  to  be  assigned  to  each  one  at  the  last  day  according 
to  their  works,  whether  they  be  good  or  evil.  The  Paradise 
which  our  Lord   promised  the  penitent  on    the    cross 
was  a  place  of  bliss  ;  it  was  the  place  to  which  His  own 
soul  went,  according  to  His  commitment  of  it  to  God  His 
Father.     It  was  heaven — the   same  kind  of  a  heaven 
Abraham  was  in  when  he  took  Lazarus  into  his  bosom. 
And  so  the  rich  man  opened  his  eyes  in  hell ;  but  it  does 
not  follow  from  this  that  a  deeper  hell  was  not  still  in 
reservation  for  the  lost,  after  the  general  judgment,  and 
greater  and  higher  degrees  of  glory  in  heaven  for  Lazarus, 


192  "he  descended  into  hell." 

and  for  the  penitent,  and  for  all  the  pious  dead  after  the 
general  resurection. 

Rejecting  as  I  do  the  idea  of  an  intermediate  state,  as 
a  kind  of  Purgatory,  and  not  being  satisfied  with  the 
metaphorical  interpretation  offered  by  the  Reformers, 
but  explaining  the  words.  He  descended  into  liell,  as 
substantially  synonymous  with,  and  He  was  hurled^  it 
may  be  properly  asked.  What  then  became  of  our  Lord's 
soul  during  the  time  that  passed  between  His  death  and 
His  resurrection  ?  It  might  be  quite  a  sufficient  answer 
to  this  question  to  ask  another  :  Where  was  the  soul  of 
the  son  of  the  widow  of  Nain,  or  of  Lazarus  of  Bethany, 
during  the  time  between  their  dying  and  their  restoration 
to  life?  And  I  have  no  answer  to  give  to  this  question 
as  to  the  young  man  of  Nain  or  as  to  Lazarus,  for  the 
Word  of  God  does  not  furnish  us  any  information  on  the 
subject.  But  as  to  our  Lord's  soul  we  may  safely  say  : 
It  was  with  God  all  this  time.  His  soul  returned  to  God, 
according  to  His  dying  commendation  of  it  to  God  his 
Father,  and  with  him  was  the  penitent  thief,  to  whom  He 
had  promised  Paradise  the  very  same  day  they  were  cruci- 
fied. Our  Lord  went  immediately  to  heaven  when  He  gave 
up  the  ghost.  The  next  day  was  the  holy  Sabbath,  and 
so,  speaking  with  reverence.  He  spent  it  with  His  Father 
resting  in  heaven,  after  completing  His  great  redemption 
work,  as  His  Father  did  after  the  work  of  creation.  And 
so,  after  the  rest  of  the  Sabbath,  He  descended  on  the 
morning  of  the  first  day  of  the  week,  which  we  now  call 
the  Lord's  day,  from  heaven  into  Sheol,  that  is,  into  the 
tomb  of  Joseph  of  Arimathea — early  in  the  morning, 
not  to  remain  there  under  the  power  of  death,  and  in  the 
state  and  abode  of  the  dead,  but  to  take  up  His  dead 
body,  and  come  forth  as  the  conqueror  of  sin,  death,  hell, 
and  the  grave. 


SAINTS   EISE   LIKE   CHRIST.  193 

Truly  thus  was  it  impossible  for  Him  whom  God  hath, 
raised  up,  having  loosed  the  pains  of  death,  to  be  holden 
any  longer  rn  the  grave.  Thus  He  ascended  upon  high, 
leading  captivity  captive. 

"  Now  empty  are  the  courts  of  death, 
And  crushed  thy  sting,  despair; 
And  roses  bloom  in  the  desert  tomb, 
For  Jesus  hath  been  there. 

"  And  He  hath  tamed  the  strength  of  hell, 
And  dragged  him  through  the  sky  ; 
And  captive  behind  his  chariot  wheel 
He  hath  bound  captivity."* 

Christ's  work  for  his  people  is  indeed  complete.  He 
exhausted  the  curse,  and  for  the  soul  that  believes  in  Him 
there  remains  no  more  hell — for  there  is  no  more  guilt. 
There  is  no  condemnation  to  them  that  are  in  Christ  Jesus. 
He  follows  us  into  the  regions  of  the  dead,  and  bursts 
asunder  the  bars  of  death,  and  opens  the  door  for  a 
glorious  resurrection,  when  our  vile  bodies  shall  be 
fashioned  like  unto  his  own  glorified  and  ascended  body. 
And  not  only  so,  but  thus  are  we  called  to  follow  Him  to 
heaven.  First  at  death  our  soul  is  to  be  commended  to 
His  God  and  our  God,  to  His  Father  and  our  Father— and 
the  body  to  the  grave,  to  rest  in  hope,  until  He  calls  us 
to  arise  and  see  Him  in  the  full  glory  of  his  kingdom. 

Almighty  God,  enable  us  by  Thy  grace  to  cast  away  the 
works  of  darkness  and  put  on  the  armor  of  light,  that 
in  the  day  when  Thy  Son,  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  shall  come 
with  great  power  and  glory,  to  judge  both  the  quick  and 
the  dead,  we  may  rise  to  the  life  immortal,  through  Him 
who  liveth  and  reigneth  with  Thee  and  the  Holy  Ghost, 
now  and  ever.     Amen. 


*  Heber'a  Easter  Hymn. 
13 


194    "hell"  not  GEHENNA  NOE  PUEGATOET. 


X. 


HELL"  NOT  GEHENNA  NOR  PURGATORY. 


"  For  thou  wilt  not  leave  my  soul  in  hell :  neither  wilt  thou  sufl'er  thine  H0I7 
One  to  see  corruption." — Psalm  xvi.  10. 

According  to  the  division  of  the  Creed  which  I  am 
following,  the  whole  of  the  Fifth  Article  is:  "He  de- 
scended into  hell ;  the  third  day  He  rose  again  from  the 
dead."  At  present  I  am  engaged  only  on  the  first  clause 
of  this  Article  :  *'  He  descended  into  hell." 

Last  Sabbath  evening,  in  order  to  be  as  concise  and  as 
clear  as  the  nature  of  the  discussion  of  such  an  Article  as 
this  admits,  I  proposed  the  following  method  :  namely, 

I.  To  offer  you  a  short  history  of  the  clause — He  de- 
scended into  hell,  as  it  lies  in  our  Creed. 

II.  Ascertain  historically  and  from  the  Scriptures  the 
meaning  of  the  words,  descended  into  hell.     And, 

III.  I  proposed  to  examine  briefly  the  passages  of 
Scripture  which  it  is  alleged  teach  the  local  descent  of 
Christ's  soul  into  hell,  and  which  are  thus  made  to  sup- 
port the  modern  doctrine  of  Purgatory.  The  first  and 
second  heads  I  presented  as  well  as  I  could  last  Sabbath 


VAEIOUS   IIEANINGS    OF   HELL.  195 

The  third  and  last  one  remains  for  our  present 
attempt.  That  is,  it  is  my  purpose  now,  with  God's 
assistance,  to  show  that  the  words,  He  descended  into 
Tiell^  as  they  lie  in  our  Creed,  do  not  mean  Gehenna  or 
Purgatory  in  any  sense,  and  that  the  passages  of  Holy 
Scripture  generally  brought  forward  in  proof  of  such  an 
interpretation  of  the  Creed,  do  not  teach  or  favor  it,  nor 
allow  any  such  doctrine  to  be  preached  as  a  part  of  the 
Faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints. 

It  has  been  shown,  I  hope  satisfactorily,  that  the 
words  BTieol^  Hades^  ivferi^  ivferna^  and  our  Saxon 
word  liell^  bear  a  remarkable  correspondence  with  each 
other,  both  as  to  their  etymological  meaning  and  as  to 
the  changes  and  applications  they  have  undergone.  They, 
are  terms  so  vague  and  extensive  that  they  are  found 
comprehending  the  invisible  world,  wherever  and  what- 
ever it  is,  or  is  supposed  to  be — the  state  of  the  dead — the 
place  of  spirits  separated  from  their  bodies,  both  good 
and  bad — and  often  simply  the  grave.  Also  it  is  to  be 
noted  that  these  words,  as  is  usually  the  case  in  the  prim- 
itive state  of  a  language,  and  perhaps  especially  so  in  the 
Oriental  languages,  have  passed  from  their  primary  to  a 
secondary  sense.  This  is  empliatically  the  case  with  our 
word  hell.  It  has  now  a  determinate  meaning.  Now  it 
means  the  place  of  the  future  and  eternal  punishment  of 
the  wicked  ;  but  its  original  meaning  was  any  thing  cov- 
ered— a  hole,  a  pit,  an  abyss,  the  invisible.  It  is  also  true 
with  these  terms,  as  with  others,  that  they  are  used  in  a 
figurative  or  metaphorical  sense. 

Again,  although  the  descent  of  Christ  into  hell  is  not 
formally  stated  anywhere  in  the  Scriptures,  nor  found  as 
a  distinct  Article  in  any  copy  or  draught  of  the  Apostles' 
Creed,  or  of  any  ancient  Creed,  public  or  private,  for 
about  four  hundred  years  after  Christ,  yet  it  was  held  as 


196    "hell"  not  GEHENNA  NOR  PUEGATORY. 

an  Article  of  Faith,  in  some  sense,  "by  almost  all  tlie 
Fathers.  And  Augustine  boldly  says,  *'!N"one  but  an 
infidel  would  deny  the  descent  of  Christ  into  hell.  " 

There  was,  undoubtedly,  a  general  opinion  among  the 
ancients,  both  heathen  and  Christian,  that  the  souls  of 
men  descended  at  death  into  what  they  called  the  infernal 
regions,  not  meaning  the  hell  of  the  damned,  but  the  state 
or  receptacle  of  spirits  separated  from  their  bodies,  which 
was  supposed  to  be  beneath  the  earth.  Here  they  thought 
the  soul  was  detained — left  to  wander  about  in  vast  unde- 
fined regions.  Some  of  the  Fathers  and  theological  wri- 
ters of  former  ages  have  maintained  that  this  was  the 
meaning  of  these  words  in  the  Creed,  which,  however,  I 
think  is  a  mistake.  Old  TertulUan  says  that  Christ  de- 
scended into  hell  that  He  might  satisfy  the  conditions  of 
mortality,  and  complete  the  form  of  human  death  in  the 
shades  below.*  As  I  understand  him,  he  means  precise- 
ly what  I  suppose  our  Creed  means — namely,  that  the 
body  and  the  soul  of  Christ  were  reduced  by  death  to 
the  precise  condition  that  marks  the  natural  dissolution 
of  every  other  man.f  Seeing,  then,  that  such  Fathers  as 
Tertullian  and  Augustine,  and  the  Church  of  the  earliest 
ages,  generally  understood  the  sixteenth  Psalm,  quoted 
by  Peter  in  the  second  chapter  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apos- 
tles and  portions  of  Colossians  and  Ephesians,  and  of 
first  Peter,  to  mean  that  in  some  sense  Christ  did  descend 
into  hell,  it  is  important  and  necessary  for  us  to  examine 
these  several  places  of  Holy  Scripture,  and  ascertain,  as 
clearly  as  we  can,  what  they  do  really  mean.  They  are  : 
Ps.  xvi.  10,  quoted  in  Acts  ii.  27 ;  Eph.  iv.  8-10  ;  1  Pet. 
iii.  18-20. 


*  See  Browne  and  Pearson,     f  See  Harvey,  vol.  1,  p.  337. 


NO    ^^LIMBUS   PATRUM."  197 

As  ftir  as  my  present  investigations  are  concerned,  the 
main  interpretations  of  those  passages  of  Scripture  may 
be  classed  in  the  following  order:  I.  The  Fathers  and 
Schoolmen,  at  least  many  of  them,  used  the  words  of  the 
Creed  or  their  equivalent,  descendit  ad  inferna^  as 
expressing  what  they  understood  these  passages  to  mean, 
without  affixing  any  clear  or  definite  meaning  to  the 
phrase,  every  one  having  his  own  interpretation. 

II.  The  Roman  Church  and  some  others  teach  that 
Christ  descended  literally  and  locally  to  hell ;  that  is,  to 
some  part  of  it ;  at  least,  to  the  part  they  call  Limbus 
Patrum — alleged  to  be  on  the  confines  of  the  place  of 
torment ;  and  that  He  delivered  from  this  Limbus  Patrum 
the  souls  of  the  Patriarchs  especially,  and  of  good  men 
who  had  died  but  were  still  not  fit  to  go  to  heaven  till  He 
rescued  them.  There  is  great  diversity  of  opinion,  how- 
ever, about  Christ' s  descent  into  hell,  and  great  latitude  as 
to  the  doctrine  of  Purgatory,  among  those  who  believe  in  it. 
Even  in  the  Church  of  Rome  it  was  not  formally  affirmed 
till  the  Council  of  Florence,  in  1439.  The  Primitive 
Church  knew  nothing  of  it,  nor  of  the  descent  of  Christ 
into  Jiell^  if  these  words  mean  any  thing  more  than  Christ's 
death  and  burial,  as  I  have  endeavored  to  explain  them 
in  the  last  discourse.  The  general  idea  among  the  Fathers 
and  the  Schoolmen  of  Hades  and  Sheol  was  that  they  meant 
the  state  of  the  dead,  including  the  place  of  their  existence, 
both  of  the  good  and  bad,  comprising  Elysium  and  Tar- 
tarus, Paradise  and  Gehenna,  and  at  least  that  the  godly 
were  not  perfectly  happy  till  the  resurrection  of  their 
bodies.  Even  those  who  have  taught  that  Christ  by 
preaching  to  the  spirits  in  prison  delivered  them  from  hell, 
do  not  hold  that  all  sorts  of  bad  people  are  thus  to  be  saved. 
They  tell  us  some  are  so  bad  they  go  to  hell  at  once,  and 
for  them  there  is  no  hope.     Others  dying  who  are  not  bad 


198     "  HELL   I^OT  GEHENNA  NOR  PURGATORY. 

enougTi  to  goto  liell,  and  yet  not  good  enongli  to  go  to 
heayen,  are  sent  to  Purgatory,  and  there  their  sins  are 
scoured  away  "by  fire  and  torment,  provided  money 
enough  is  paid  to  priests  for  singing  dirges  and  saying 
masses.  If  there  is  not  much  money  paid,  it  takes  hun- 
dreds of  years  to  get  out  of  Purgatory  ;  but  such  is  the 
power  of  the  Church  keys  in  the  hands  of  his  Holiness 
the  Pope,  that  prayers,  masses,  and  dirges,  well  paid  for, 
are  supposed  to  shorten  greatly  the  time.  It  is  perfectly 
consistent  with  this  view  of  Purgatory,  for  rich  men  to 
hestow  vast  sums  of  money  on  monasteries,  chapels, 
cathedrals,  and  schools,  on  condition  that  the  priests  say 
so  many  masses  and  prayers  to  deliver  their  souls  as  soon 
as  possible  from  the  fires  of  Purgatory.  But  does  the 
Creed  mean  this  ?  Is  there  such  a  doctrine  taught  or 
allowed  to  be  believed  by  the  Word  of  God  ?  I  think  not. 
That  a  higher  degree  of  glory,  a  more  perfect  state  of 
holiness  and  happiness  is  in  reserve  for  God' s  people  in 
the  ages  to  come — after  Christ' s  second  coming,  or  after 
the  general  judgment — is  the  common  belief  of  Christen- 
dom. We  have  Origen,  Lactantius,  Hilary,  Ambrose, 
Augustine,  and  others,  in  proof  that  the  souls  of  the  pious 
dead  are  at  least  in  some  measure  held  back  from  perfect 
glory — such  a  fulness  of  glory  as  is  to  be  given  to  them  at 
the  resurrection.*  This  I  can  believe,  if  by  it  we  are  to 
understand  that  believers  at  death  are  happy,  and  do 
immediately  pass  to  glory,  so  that,  being  absent  from  the 
body,  they  are  present  with  the  Lord  ;  and  provided  also 
that  it  allows  of  different  degrees  in  glory,  and  ever  increas- 
ing weight  of  glory,  especially  at  the  resurrection  of  the 
body,  and  also  different  degrees  of  punishment  for  the 
ungodly.    But  if  these  Fathers  are  to  be  interpreted  so  as 


*  Quotations  are  in  Browne,  pp.  81,  82. 


TRUE   MEAJS^ING    OF   THE    CREED.  199 

to  mean  that  the  state  of  the  souls  of  the  pious  dead  is  a 
Purgatory,  as  explained  by  the  Church  of  Rome,  then  I 
cannot  believe  them.  Nor  can  I  receive  the  opinion  of 
Durandus,  that  all  the  texts  produced  to  prove  the  descent 
of  Christ  into  hell  and  Purgatory  simply  mean  that  a 
virtual  influence  from  Christ's  death  was  exerted  on  the 
souls  of  the  dead,  and  thus  the  words,  He  descended  into 
liell^  are  to  be  taken  figuratively,  and  mean  that  the 
benefits  of  His  redemption  are  extended  to  the  regions 
of  perdition. 

III.  Witsius,  Calvin,  and  the  Reformers  generally 
taught  that  the  words.  He  descended  into  hell^  were  to  be 
interpreted  figuratively,  or  as  a  metaphor,  and  were 
exhausted  in  the  agonies  of  our  Lord's  soul  while  in  the 
body.  This  has  been  shown  to  be  altogether  inadmissible. 

TV.  Bishop  Pearson  and  some  others  hold  the  doc- 
trine that  Christ  literally  went  to  hell — to  Gehenna — and 
passed  through  the  regions  of  lost  souls,  and  devils 
damned,  literally,  for  the  purpose  of  showing  that  He 
really  was  a  conqueror,  and  that  His  people  have  noth- 
ing to  fear  from  hell  or  the  devil.  This  view,  also,  I 
am  obliged  to  reject.  But  another,  and,  as  I  think,  the 
true  view  of  this  whole  subject,  is, 

Y.  That  the  Creed,  the  best  Fathers,  and  the  Word  of 
God  all  agree  in  teaching  as  an  Article  of  Christian  faith, 
that  by  our  Lord' s  death,  burial,  and  descent  to  Hades, 
we  are  to  understand  that,  as  the  second  Adam,  he  met 
the  death  penalty  incurred  by  the  first  Adam,  both  as 
to  his  "true  body  "  and  ''  rational  soul :"  that  is,  in  every 
sense,  whatever  is  predicable  of  man' s  dissolution  in  con- 
sequence of  Adam' s  sin,  was  true  as  to  the  real  separation 
of  the  soul  of  Christ  from  his  body.  His  body  was  buried 
and  his  soul  went  to  God  just  as  the  body  of  any  other 


200    "hell"  ]^0T  GEHENNA  NOE  PUEGATORY. 

mortal  man  returns  at  death  to  dust,  and  his  soul  to  God 
who  gave  it.  But  as  Christ  conquers  sin,  death,  and  the 
grave,  so  His  "body  and  soul  remain  in  Sheol,  Hades, 
Inferni,  Hell,  only  as  long  as  Jonah  was  in  the  whale- 
that  is,  his  body  did  not  see  corruption,  nor  did  his  soul 
remain  with  God,  waiting  the  general  resurrection.  The 
only  difference  between  the  death  of  the  Lord  Jesus  in 
these  particulars,  and  the  death  of  a  believer,  lies  in  this : 
His  body  is  taken  up  again  by  his  soul  before  it  decays — 
our  bodies  remain  till  the  resurrection.  His  soul  remained 
only  one  day  and  two  nights  with  God  his  Father  in  Para- 
dise, which  is  heaven,  till  it  came  back  to  reanimate  his 
body,  but  the  souls  of  believers  remain  with  God,  wait- 
ing the  resurrection  of  the  last  day. 

This  view  seems  to  me  to  harmonize  every  text  of  holy 
Scripture  that  refers  to  the  subject  at  all,  and  to  be  true 
in  itself  and  consistent  with  reason  and  common  sense.  I 
quite  agree,  however,  with  the  very  learned  and  excellent 
Dr.  Lightfoot,  when  he  says  :  ''  There  is  not  an  Article  in 
our  Christian  faith  that  still  hath  more  need  of  explication 
to  bring  it  to  common  reason  or  the  analogy  of  faith  than 
this  one."  The  wording  of  this  part  of  the  Article  is 
so  obscure  and  harsh,  that  I  could  wish  it  were  modified. 
For  to  think  of  the  soul  of  our  Saviour,  in  any  sense,  in 
the  same  place  with  Judas  Iscariot  who  betrayed  Him,  is 
to  my  mind  exceedingly  repulsive.  To  think  that  He 
who  had  by  his  death  purchased  heaven  for  others,  should 
himself,  after  death,  literally  and  locally  descend  into  the 
place  of  the  damned,  I  cannot  believe. 

I.  All  the  symbolical  books  of  the  Churches  of  the 
Keformation  as  well  as  the  Creed  of  the  Church  of  Eome 
acknowledge  the  truth  of  the  proposition  as  it  lies  in  our 
Creed — that  Christ  descended  into  hell.     The  only  ques- 


PETER    ON   THE   PSALM8.  201 

tion,  then,  is,  in  what  sense  are  these  words  to  be  under- 
stood, and,  when  thus  understood,  is  the  doctrine  so  stated 
according  to  the  Word  of  God  ?  In  the  minds  of  most 
of  our  writers  who  defend  a  literal,  local  descent  of 
Christ's  soul  into  hell,  the  principal  text  is  the  one  read 
out  of  the  sixteenth  Psalm  :  ''For  David  speaketh,"  &c. 
[See  Acts  ii.  25-27,  with  31-36  verses.] 

Here  observe,  that  having  repeated  the  text  from  the 
Psalmist,  the  Apostle  applies  it  to  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  to 
prove  that  He  is  Christ  the  promised  Messiah :  ''  He  David, 
being  a  Prophet,  and  seeing  this  before,  spake  of  the 
resurrection  of  Christ,  that  his  soul  was  not  left  in  hell, 
neither  did  his  flesh  see  corruption."  The  way  this  pas- 
sage is  made  to  teach  the  doctrine  that  Christ  descended 
into  hell  is  this :  If  the  soul  of  Christ  were  not  left  in 
hell  at  his  resurrection,  then  his  soul  was  in  hell  before 
his  resurrection :  but  it  was  not  there  before  his  death  ; 
therefore  upon  or  after  his  death,  and  before  his  resurrec- 
tion, the  soul  of  Christ  descended  into  hell.*  But  if  we 
can  show  that  the  passage,  as  we  have  it  in  the  Psalms  and 
in  the  discourse  of  St.  Peter,  does  not  admit  of  such  an 
interpretation  as  this,  then  of  course  it  does  not  prove  this 
doctrine.  The  interpretation  under  review  requires  that 
hell  should  mean  the  place,  at  least  some  part  of  the  world 
of  woe,  where  the  spirits  of  men  separated  from  their 
bodies  at  death  are  detained,  and  undergo  more  or  less 
torment ;  but  I  have  shown  that  Sheol  or  Hades  here 
means  the  grave,  or  the  unseen  world,  and  not  the  place 
of  future  punishment  at  all.  Again,  to  make  this  inter- 
pretation true,  it  must  be  shown  that  the  word  soul  as 
used  by  the  Psalmist  signifies  the  human  soul  of  Christ 
in  distinction  from  his  body,  and  as  it  was  while  wholly 

*  See  Pearson,  p.  338. 


202        "hell"  not  gehen-j^a  nor  purgatory. 

separate  from  his  dead  body.  But  this  cannot  be  proven 
from  the  Psalms  nor  the  Acts.  The  Hebrew  word  for  soul 
in  this  place  is  nepTiesTi^  which  does  not  mean  the  spirit, 
the  immortal,  thinking  part  of  man.  Its  primary  sense  is 
** breath,"  "life,"  whether  of  man  or  beast — a  living 
creature^  whether  rational  or  irrational.  So  the  word  is 
used  in  Gen.  i.  20,  21  and  ii.  7,  and  its  corresponding  word 
in  Greek  in  Acts  and  in  1  Cor.  xv.  45.  In  process  of  time 
the  same  word  came  to  signify  the  body  of  a  man  or  of  a 
beast,  and  even  the  corpse  after  the  life  had  left  it.  Thus, 
Numbers  xix.  11  :  "  He  that  toucheth  the  dead  body  of  any 
man  shall  be  unclean  seven  days."  ''Whosoever  touch- 
eth the  dead  body  of  any  man  that  is  dead."  "If  one 
that  is  unclean  by  a  dead  body.''''  In  each  of  these 
passages,  and  there  are  many  more,  the  Hebrew  for 
dead,  body  is  nephesh — the  very  word  used  for  soul 
in  this  Psalm.  There  are  two  other  texts  where  this 
word  is  so  emphatic  that  I  wish  to  quote  them. 
They  are  these:  "All  the  days  that  he  separate  him- 
self to  the  Lord,  he  shall  come  at  no  dead  body" — ne- 
phesTi.  Numbers  vi.  6.  And  in  Lev.  xix.  28 :  "Ye 
shall  not  make  any  cuttings  in  your  flesh  for  the  dead  " — 
nephesli.  Again,  the  word  soul  means  ^er5o?z.  "Who- 
soever hath  killed  any  soul,"  that  is,  any  person.  "  Let 
me  die  the  death  of  the  righteous."  In  Hebrew  it  is.  Let 
my  soul.  "  Let  me  die  " — Hebrew,  let  my  soul  "  die  with 
the  Philistines."  In  these  and  such  places,  soul  means 
the  person,  the  man  himself.  In  Amos  vi.  8  :  "  The  Lord 
God  hath  sworn  by  himself,"  Hebrew,  be-neplieslio — by 
his  soul,  that  is,  by  himself,  by  his  own  being,  existence, 
there  being  no  one  greater.  And  every  one  acquainted  with 
classical  authors  remembers  that  the  Greek  equivalent  is 
used  with  quite  as  much  latitude,  meaning  the  body,  and 
the  body  and  the  soul,  the  person.  If  I  say  not  a  soul  was 
present,  do  I  not  mean  not  a  person  was  present  %    Even 


BODY   AND    SOUL    DISTINGUISHED.  203 

in  our  own  language,  soul  is  not  limited  to  the  thinking, 
immortal  part  of  man,  but  is  synonymous  with  person. 
See  Psalm  xi.  1 ;  xxxv.  3,  7 ;  Job  ix.  21.  Observe  the 
Apostle' s  words  :  ''For  David  speaketh  concerning  him." 
[25,  27  verse].  Here  my  fleshy  that  is,  my  body,  my  dead 
body,  as  distinguished  from  the  living  soul.,  shall  rest  in 
liope.  ''Because  Thou  wilt  not  leave  my  soul" — Me — 
my  person,  my  humanity,  comprising  both  my  true  body 
and  reasonable  soul,  under  the  power  of  death  in  the 
grave.  "Neither  wilt  thou  suffer  thine  Holy  One" — Me — 
Myself — "to  see  corruption."  To  see  corruption  is  to 
undergo  corruption,  as  to  see  death  is  to  die,  undergo 
death.  Believers  in  general  are  saved  from  the  perpetual 
dominion  of  death,  but  Christ  was  saved  even  from  the 
first  approach  of  putrefaction. 

"  Thou  wilt  not  leave  my  dead  body  in  the  grave  " — 
Beza,  and  also  the  Geneva  Bible. — Thou  wilt  not  resign, 
abandon,  give  me,  myself,  over  to  the  dominion  of  the 
grave.  The  Holy  One  cannot  mean  the  dead  body 
separate  from  the  soul ;  and  yet  it  means  just  what  my 
soul  means  in  the  other  phrase,  where  my  soul  is  an 
oriental  way  of  using  the  emphatic  personal  pronoun 
myself.  The  essential  meaning  certainly  is  :  "  Thou  wilt 
not  leave  my  soul  and  body  separate." 

If  I  am  not  mistaken,  I  have  made  the  point  that  our 
scholars  admit  that  the  word  used  by  the  Psalmist  for 
soul  does  sometimes  mean  the  body,  even  the  body  of  a 
dead  man,  a  corpse — such  a  body  as  a  Nazarite  was  for- 
bidden to  touch,  and  which  no  one  could  touch,  accord- 
ing to  the  law  of  Moses,  without  being  rendered  unclean. 
And  in  this  place  it  means  me,  myself. 

As  I  understand  the  two  clauses  of  the  Psalm  to  mean 
essentially  the  same  thing,  soul  cannot  here  be  limited  to 
the  body  as  separated  from  the  immortal  spiritual  part 


204       "hell"  isroT  gehenna  nor  purgatory. 

which  we  call  the  soul,  but  must  be  taken  here  for  the 
person  of  man,  consisting  of  both  soul  and  body.  That 
it  is  so  to  be  understood,  in  this  and  many  other  places, 
many  of  our  scholars  admit. 

A  second  point  here  to  be  noted  is,  that  the  word 
'' hell"  in  our  translation  is  used  in  this  place  in  its  old 
wide  sense — the  unseen  world,  containing  the  grave  for 
the  body,  and  the  existence  of  the  soul  separate  from  the 
body. 

Thus,  then,  if  the  soul  of  Christ  means  Christ  himself, 
is  an  emphatic  oriental  way  of  saying  me — meaning  his 
entirety  as  a  man,  his  ''true  body  "  and  ' '  rational  soul ;" 
and  if  hell  here  means  the  state  of  the  dead,  including  the 
grave  for  the  body  and  the  return  of  the  soul  to  God, 
then  the  meaning  is  plain  and  eminently  Scriptural. 

Dr.  Barrow,  indeed,  contends  that  Sheol,  Hades,  and 
Inferna,  in  the  sense  of  the  Creed,  has  no  application  to 
the  state  of  the  soul  at  all.  His  argument  is  to  the  effect 
that  the  Old  Testament  does  not  speak  of  the  soul  of 
man  going  down  into  any  such  a  state  or  place  as  is 
denominated  Sheol,  but  thus  represents  the  body,  while 
the  soul  returns,  going  up  to  God  who  gave  it.  The 
bodies  of  men  naturally  return  to  dust,  fall  into  the  dust 
of  death,  descend  into  the  bosom  of  the  grave,  and  are 
therefore  said  to  descend.  But  the  souls  of  the  righteous 
are  in  the  hands  of  God,  not  in  Sheol.  ^Now  it  is  cer- 
tainly true  that  the  Hebrew  idea  was  that  the  soul  went 
wpicard,  not  downward,  consequently  did  not  go  into 
Sheol,  in  the  sense  of  Purgatory  or  Limhus  Fairum.  One 
of  the  things  that  distinguishes  the  soul  of  man,  in  Bible 
language,  from  the  spirit  of  a  beast,  is  that  it  goes  up. 
Enoch  and  Elijah  were  taken  up.  The  souls  of  the  right- 
eous are  always  supposed  to  ascend,  to  go  up  to  the 
society  of  the  heavenly  Jerusalem.     Again,  it  may  fairly 


SHEOL   IS   THE   GRAVE.  205 

"be  asked,  if  Sheol  signifies  the  state  or  place  of  the  soul, 
how  are  we  to  understand  such  expressions  as  these, 
namely:  "The  grave  {Sheol)  cannot  praise  thee,  death 
cannot  celebrate  thee  ;  they  that  go  down  into  the  pit  can- 
not hope  for  thy  truth.  In  death  there  is  no  remembrance 
of  thee.  In  the  grave  {Sheol)  who  shall  give  thee  thanks  ? 
There  is  no  work,  nor  service,  nor  knowledge,  nor  wisdom, 
in  the  grave  {Sheol)  whither  thou  goest."  All  these 
expressions  are  easily  understood  if  Sheol  means  the 
place  to  which  the  body  is  consigned  at  death  ;  but  they 
are  not  true  if  applied  to  the  state  of  departed  souls. 

It  is,  however,  true,  that  in  the  times  of  the  New 
Testament  the  Jews  adopted  the  heathen  idea  of  Hades, 
and  seem  to  have  supposed  it  meant  the  place  of  punish- 
ment for  the  souls  of  the  Avicked,  or  at  least  the  invisible 
world  into  which  the  soul  passes  when  it  leaves  the 
body,  just  as  some  Christians  have  adopted  the  idea  of 
Purgatory,  from  the  heathen. 

Now,  if  we  take  the  words.  He  descended  into  hell, 
in  the  sense  of  the  grave,  or  in  the  still  more  general 
sense  of  into  the  state  of  the  invisible  world  into 
which  the  dead  pass,  then  the  meaning  of  the  Creed  is 
certainly  a  correct  one.  Tlie  meaning,  then,  is  just  as 
it  was  often  expressed  in  some  of  the  old  Creeds,  an 
expletive  of  the  word  buried,  or  as  standing  in  the 
place  of  was  buried.  The  meaning,  then,  is,  our  Lord 
passed  into  the  state  of  death — that  happened  to  him 
which  happened  to  Jacob  and  the  pious  prophets  and 
kings  of  Israel— namely.  His  soul  went  to  God,  to  whom 
He  committed  it  when  He  gave  up  the  ghost,  and  his 
body  was  laid  in  the  tomb.  This  meaning  meets  the 
requirements  of  every  text  of  Holy  Scripture  concerning 
the  Messiah,  and  is  sustained  by  all  the  passages  in  the 
New  Testament  descriptive  of  his  burial  and  resurrec- 


206     "hell"  not  GEHENNA  NOR  PURGATORY. 

tion.  In  1  Cor.  xv.  1-4,  you  remember  Paul  says,  as  if 
he  intended  an  exhaustive  enumeration  of  points  of 
•doctrine  to  be  believed  on  this  subject,  "  I  delivered  unto 
you  first,  that  Christ  died  according  to  the  Scriptures,  and 
that  he  was  buried,  and  that  he  rose  again  the  third  day." 
Here  note,  he  mentions  only  his  death,  burial,  and  resur- 
rection. If,  then,  by  He  descended  into  hell,  any  thing 
else  or  any  thing  more  is  meant  than  what  his  death  and 
burial  comprehend,  would  not  the  Apostle  have  specified 
it  also  %  If,  between  his  burial  and  his  resurrection,  our 
Lord  had  performed  any  such  work  as  going  down  to 
Gehenna,  or  delivering  the  patriarchs  from  the  torments 
of  Purgatory,  would  he  not  have  here  enumerated  it  as 
among  his  memorable  exploits  \ 

Again,  suppose  that  Hades  is  to  be  taken  in  its  Greek 
meaning,  and  not  strictly  in  the  sense  of  Sheol,  as  in  the 
earlier  Hebrew,  still  there  is  this  difficulty — tlie  inde- 
finiteness  of  the  term.  It  may  mean  the  place  of  damned 
spirits,  shut  up  in  despair,  or  it  may  mean  the  place  com- 
mon to  all  souls,  both  good  and  bad,  miserable  and 
blessed.  But  against  this  view  is  the  text  from  Revela- 
tion, where  Death  and  hell  (Hades)  were  cast  into  the 
lake  of  fire.  Now  it  cannot  be  true  that  Paradise, 
the  good  part  of  Hades,  was  cast  into  the  lake  of 
fire,  which  is  the  second  death.  And,  besides,  if  tliis 
is  true,  then  that  part  of  Hades,  which  is  Elysium, 
Paradise,  as  opposed  to  Tartarus,  is  below  us — beneath 
our  feet — under  tlie  earth.  Who  believes  that?  Does 
not  Paul  clearly  intimate  that  the  third  heaven  is  Para- 
dise? At  least,  I  cannot  believe,  from  all  I  have  yet 
seen,  that  the  place  destined  to  receive  the  souls  of  God's 
people  is  in  the  darksome  bowels  of  the  earth.  I  con- 
clude, therefore,  that  Sheol,  Hades,  Hell,  in  the  sense  of 
the  Creed,  is  not  to  be  applied  to  the  place  or  state  of  the 


WHAT   CHRIST   DID   DO.  207 

soul  at  all,  but  to  that  of  the  body.  It  means  either  the 
grave,  or,  more  generally,  the  invisible  world  into  which 
tlie  dead  pass  when  the  soul  leaves  the  body.  In  this 
sense,  descending  means  falling  from  life  and  the  descent 
of  the  body  to  the  tomb.  And  the  word  hell  is  used  in 
its  broad  sense  of  Sheol^  meaning  that  his  body  was  laid 
in  the  grave,  the  common  receptacle  for  the  bodies  of  all 
Adam's  race,  and  his  soul  went  to  God,  as  do  the  souls 
of  all  God' s  children  at  death. 

If  the  word  Sheol,  translated  liell^  means  here  the 
grave  in  its  wide  sense,  as  it  does  in  other  places, 
including  the  state  or  condition  of  men  after  death,  and 
during  the  separation  of  the  soul  from  the  body  ;  the 
prophecy  of  the  Psalmist  would  then  run  in  this  style : 
*'Thou  shalt  not  leave  my  soul  in  hell" — that  is,  thou 
shalt  not  suffer  me  to  remain  under  the  power  of  death 
and  in  the  common  state  of  the  dead,  whose  bodies  see 
corruption,  and  whose  souls  are  without  their  bodies  until 
the  general  resurrection.  This  interpretation  makes  the 
Creed  mean :  that  Christ  was  crucified  unto  death,  was 
actually  dead,  and  was  buried,  and  He  descended  into 
hell : — that  is.  His  death  and  burial  were  accompanied 
with  and  realized  the  twofold  conditions  of  the  death 
penalty  resting  on  Adam  and  his  posterity  as  to  both  his 
soul  and  his  body.  His  body  was  laid  in  the  grave,  and 
so  far  was  committed  dust  to  dust,  and  his  soul  returned 
to  God  His  Father — He  went  unto  the  dead.  He  was  as  the 
pious  dead  are.  He  remained  in  the  state  of  death  as  other 
men  do.  The  only  difference  here  to  be  noted  between 
his  death  and  burial  and  that  of  one  of  his  followers  lies 
in  this :  namely.  His  body  remains  only  a  short  time  in 
the  grave.  It  did  not,  could  not  see  corruption.  As  He 
finished  His  work  as  representative  sufferer  on  the  Cross, 
and  as  His  body  in  itself.-  like  His  soul,  was  without  sin, 


208    "hell   not  GEHENNA  NOR  PURGATORY. 

SO  it  could  not  see  corruption.  And  therefore  His  soul 
returned  from  heaven  on  the  morning  of  the  third  day 
after  His  burial,  whereas  our  bodies  see  corruption,  and 
our  souls  are  with  God  without  their  bodies  until  the 
resurrection.  '^For  the  further  assurance  of  His  death, 
and  glory  of  His  resurrection,  as  likewise  to  commend  the 
grave  to  us,  as  now  a  very  sweet  resting-place,  He  hath 
warmed  the  cold  bed  of  the  grave  to  a  Christian,  that  he 
need  not  fear  to  lie  down  in  it,  nor  doubt  that  he  shall 
rise  again,  as  we  know,  and  are  after  to  hear,  that  Jesus 
did  Himself" — LeigMon.  There  is  then  nothing  here 
about  Christ  going  to  Gehenna,  nor  in  favor  of  a  heathen 
Purgatory. 

II.  But  perhaps  no  place  of  Holy  Scripture  has  been 
more  abused  by  perversion  than  Eph.  iv.  8-10,  which  is 
this : 

'•'  Wherefore  He  saith.  When  he  ascended  up  on  high, 
he  led  captivity  captive,  and  gave  gifts  unto  men. 

"Now  that  he  ascended,  what  is  it  but  that  he  also 
descended  first  into  the  lower  parts  of  the  earth  ? 

''  He  that  descended  is  the  same  also  that  ascended  up 
far  above  all  heavens,  that  he  might  fill  all  things." 

Now  it  is  admitted  many  of  the  ancient  Fathers  under- 
stood these  words  of  the  Apostle  to  mean  that  Christ 
descended  into  hell,  although  it  is  not  clear  what  they 
understood  hell  to  mean.  Perhaps  generally,  however, 
by  hell  they  meant  the  lowest  parts  of  the  earth,  suppo- 
sing that  hell  was  in  the  centre  of  it,  or  at  least  inside 
of  our  earth,  and  so  they  conceited  the  Apostle  meant. 

Confessedly  this  is  a  passage  of  some  difficulty,  but  I 
hope  to  give  you  a  fair  and  clear  view  of  it.  What,  then, 
is  the  Apostle's  object?  Answer.  He  is  exhorting  be- 
lievers to  walk  worthy  of  their  vocation,  which  they  were 


i-AlJL    ON   THIS    SUBJECT.  209 

to  do  by  showing  tli  em  selves  obedient  to  all  the  commands 
of  Christ.  And  as  a  motive  urging  them  so  to  do,  he 
reminds  them  of  the  variety  of  gifts  and  offices  conferred 
on  them  as  members  of  the  Church  of  Christ.  And  speak- 
ing of  the  gifts  of  Christ  to  his  people  brings  to  His  mind 
one  of  the  Psalms  (Ixviii.  18),  that  speaks  of  Messiah  as 
a  military  conqueror,  and  this  suggests  to  his  mind  a 
beautiful  analogy.  The  Psalm  probably  was  primarily 
used  for  the  removal  of  the  tabernacle,  but  is  here  applied 
by  the  Apostle  to  the  glorious  ascension  of  Christ  after 
His  resurrection  from  the  dead. 

1.  When  he  ascended  up  on  7iigh,  alluding  to  a  Roman 
triumphal  procession,  when  the  conqueror  was  placed  in 
an  elevated  car  or  chariot. 

2.  Be  led  captivity  captive.  Conquered  kings  and 
generals  were  usually  bound  behind  the  triumphal  car, 
to  grace  the  procession. 

3.  And  gave  gifts  unto  men.  The  triumphing  con- 
queror among  the  Romans  was  wont  to  throw  money  and 
bread  among  the  crowd — even  to  the  rebellious — that  is,  to 
those  who  had  fought  against  him.  For  it  belongs  to  the 
hero  to  be  generous. 

The  next  verses  (9  and  10)  are  parenthetical,  and 
applied  positively  by  the  Apostle  to  our  Lord.     Where, 

1.  Observe,  He  who  descended  and  ascended  is  the 
same,  and  is  the  Messiah. 

2.  Ascending  implies  descending. 

3.  And  this  descending  is  his  humiliation,  in  contrast 
with  his  exaltation  after  his  death.     And, 

14 


210  "hell"    ITOT    GEHENNA   NOE   PURGATOEY. 

4.  The  contrast  so  tersely  presented  does  not  say 
or  intimate,  or  even  allow  the  idea  of  his  descent  into 
Gehenna.  His  ascent  was  not  from  Gehenna,  nor  from 
Hades.  He  who  ascended  so  high  is  the  same  who  had 
descended  so  loio,  but  this  descent  is  most  remarkable  in 
view  of  the  glory  He  left  when  He  emptied  himself  of  it 
to  become  a  man.  His  abasement  is  unparalleled  ;  so  also 
is  His  exaltation.  His  humiliation  was  down  to  the 
lowest  parts  of  the  earth  ;  His  exaltation  ''  far  above  all 
heavens."     And  the  purpose, 

5.  Is  "that  He  might  fill  all  things."  Be  head  over 
all  to  his  Church — the  sole,  Supreme,  only  Head.  Foun- 
tain to  Jews  and  Gentiles — filling  His  Church  with  gifts 
and  graces.     Hence  it  follows, 

6.  "  And  he  gave  some.  Apostles  ;  and  some,  prophets ; 
and  some,  evangelists  ;  and  some,  pastors  and  teachers. 

*'For  the  perfecting  of  the  saints,  for  the  work  of  the 
ministry,  for  the  edifying  of  the  body  of  Christ : 

"  Till  we  all  come  in  the  unity  of  the  faith,  and  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God,  unto  a  perfect  man,  unto 
the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ : 

''That  we  henceforth  be  no  more  children,  tossed  to 
and  fro,  and  carried  about  with  every  wind  of  doctrine, 
by  the  sleight  of  men,  and  cunning  craftiness,  whereby 
they  lie  in  wait  to  deceive." 

Descended  must  be  understood  in  a  literal  or  meta- 
phorical sense.  The  metaphorical  sense  is  easy  enough, 
if  we  apply  it  in  general  to  our  Lord's  humiliation,  which 
includes  all  His  suiferings  both  of  body  and  soul.  But 
if  descended  is  taken  literally  for  a  local  descent,  it 
requires  limitations  and  must  be  guarded.  Taking 
Sheol,  Hades^  hell  in  a  general  sense  for  the  receptacle  of 


JACOB   GOING   TO    SHEOL.  211 

the  dead,  both  the  grave  and  the  future  state  of  the  4ead, 
then  we  can  see  that  descended  was  used  specially  in 
regard  to  the  body,  and  means  that  it  was  laid  in  the 
grave — descended  to  the  tomb  and  to  the  dust  of  death. 
Thus  Jacob  in  his  bitter  wailing  said,  /  will  go  down^ 
descend  unto  the  grave,  Sheol — the  common  grave,  the 
house  appointed  for  all  living,  unto  my  son  mourning. 
Now  what  did  Jacob  mean  ?  Unquestionably,  as  I  think, 
he  meant,  I  shall  die ;  my  body  will  descend  into  th^ 
grave,  dust  to  dust,  whence  it  was  taken,  just  as  the 
body  of  my  son  has  already  done,  and  my  soul  will  re- 
turn to  God  who  gave  it,  just  as  the  soul  of  my  son 
Joseph  has  done.  He  meant  that  whatever  had  hap- 
pened to  his  son  Joseph,  both  as  to  his  body  and  to  his 
soul  when  he  died,  would  soon  happen  to  him.  When 
our  Lord  said  :  '^  No  man  hath  ascended  up  to  heaven, 
but  he  that  descended  from  heaven"  (Jo.  iii.  13),  He  did 
not  mean  that  He  had  descended  or  would  descend  into 
the  place  where  the  souls  of  the  dead  were  detained 
separate  from  their  bodies,  nor  to  the  place  where  the 
souls  of  men  are  tormented.  He  meant  that  He  had  come 
from  heaven  into  this  world.  Nor  is  it  probable  the 
Apostle  meant  any  thing  more  than  just  what  our  Lord 
meant — namely,  the  Incarnation,  His  descent  from  His 
Father's  bosom  to  the  womb  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  and 
to  the  sufferings  of  human  life — the  lower  parts  of  the 
earth — in  opposition  to  the  heights  of  heaven.  As  when  our 
Saviour  said :  ''Ye  are  from  beneath.  I  am  from  above  : 
ye  are  of  this  world.  I  am  not  of  this  Avorld  ;"  and  the 
phrase,  "  I  will  shew  wonders  in  heaven  above  and  signs 
in  the  earth  beneath," — the  meaning  is,  this  world  which 
is  below  and  heaven  is  above.  This  portion  of  Holy 
Scripture  does  not  teach  that  Christ  descended  into  any 
such  a  place  as  Purgatory,  or  Limbus,  or  Gehenna,  when 
His  body  was  laid  in  Joseph's  tomb.     For, 


I 


212  "hell       not   GEHENNA   NOR   PURGATORY. 

1,  It  is  not  proven,  nor  can  it  be  proved,  that  the 
descent  of  which  the  Apostle  is  speaking  was  performed 
after  his  death  at  all.     The  contrary  is  strongly  implied. 

2.  It  is  not  proved,  and  cannot  be  proved,  that  the 
Apostle  means  the  place  of  departed  souls  in  any  sense  by 
the  words  the  lowest  parts  of  the  earth.  When  Paul  says, 
Christ  descended  into  tJte  lower  parts  of  the  earthy  what 
does  he  mean  ?  Does  this  mean  any  thing  more  than  the 
whole  state  of  Christ's  humiliation  1  In  his  mind,  accord- 
ing to  Hebrew  ideas,  the  universe  was  divided  into  two 
parts  ;  the  upper ^  which  is  heaven  ;  and  the  lower ^  which 
is  the  earth.  When  Christ  therefore  came  forth  from  the 
Father  out  of  heaven,  to  be  born  of  a  woman.  He 
descended  into  the  lower  parts  of  the  earth — by  clothing 
himself  with  human  flesh.  The  Psalmist  uses  the  words 
"lowest  parts  of  the  earth"  metaphorically  for  the 
womb.  ''  Thou  hast  covered  me  in  my  mother's  womb. 
My  substance  was  not  hid  from  Thee,  when  I  was  made 
in  secret,  and  curiously  wrought  in  the  lowest  parts  of 
the  earth."  Ps.  cxxxix.  13,  15.  "The  lowest  parts  of 
the  earth,"  then,  may  denote  the  earth  itself,  as  opposed 
to  the  highest,  which  is  heaven,  and  also  those  parts  of  it 
which  are  lower  than  others,  and  less  known,  obscure 
and  hidden :  and  thus  came  to  signify  the  place  of 
burial.  Thus  in  Ezekiel :  "When  I  shall  bring  thee 
down  with  them  that  descend  into  the  pit,  with  the 
people  of  old  time,  and  shall  set  thee  in  the  low  parts 
of  the  earth."  Again:  "They  are  all  delivered  unto 
death,  in  the  midst  of  the  children  of  men,  to  the  nether 
parts  of  the  earth,  with  them  that  go  down  to  the  pit." 
Chrysostom  calls  death,  the  lower  parts  of  the  earth. 
Those  that  are  buried  are  therefore  said  to  be  under  the 
earth.  Theophylact  has  briefly  given  the  sense,  saying  : 
"  It  is  manifest  that  He  who  was  above,  not  only  descended 


J 


SPIRITS  ns^  PRISON.  213 

into  the  earth,  when  He  became  incarnate  ;  but  also  into 
Hades  when  He  died" — that  is,  He  was  buried.  Even 
hell  is  used  in  the  same  sense — as  opposed  to  heaven 
both  in  situation,  dimension,  and  character.  Thus  Job 
says,  when  speaking  of  the  unsearchableness  of  the 
Divine  perfections :  "It  is  high  as  heaven,  what  canst 
thou  do?  Deeper  than  hell,  what  canst  thou  know?" 
And  Amos  says:  ''Though  they  dig  into  hell,  thence 
shall  mine  hand  take  them  ;  though  they  climb  up  into 
heaven,  thence  will  I  bring  them  down." 

III.  And  now,  as  to  the  only  other  text  I  have  time  to 
notice,  1  Peter  iii.  18-20,  which  is  as  follows:  ''For 
Christ  also  hath  once  suffered  for  sins,  the  just  for  the  un- 
just, that  he  might  bring  us  to  God,  being  put  to  death 
in  the  flesh,  but  quickened  by  the  Spirit :  By  which  also 
he  went  and  preached  unto  the  spirits  in  prison  ;  Which 
sometime  were  disobedient,  when  once  the  long-suffering 
of  God  waited  in  the  days  of  Noah,  while  the  ark  was  a 
preparing,  wherein  few,  that  is,  eight  souls,  were  saved 
by  water."  This  text  the  Article  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, by  the  Synod  of  Edward  VI.,  claims  as  authority 
for  believing  that  Christ' s  soul  went  to  hell  and  preached 
to  the  spirits  there.  But  I  must  say  I  do  not  think  it  ad- 
mits of  any  such  an  interpretation.  Even  Augustine  says 
that  the  difficulties  of  interpreting  this  place  as  many  of 
the  Fathers  did,  so  as  to  make  it  support  the  actual  de- 
scent of  Christ' s  soul  into  hell,  are  so  many  and  go  great 
that  he  was  ready  to  give  it  up  ;  and,  in  fact,  he  did  at 
last  declare  that  St.  Peter  s  words  did  not  belong  to  the 
doctrine  of  Christ's  descent  into  hell.*  In  order  to  make 
this  text  prove  that   Christ  descended  into  hell,  it  is 

♦  The  original  i3  in  Pearson  on  the  Creed,  p.  338.    And  the  texts  just  com- 
mented on,  see  the  Commentators  generallj. 


214       "hell"  not  gehen^na  noe  purgatory. 

necessary  to  show,  (1.)  that  the  spirit  here  spoken  of  is 
the  soul  of  Christ ;  (2)  that  the  time  when  he  preached  to 
the  spirits  in  prison,  referred  to  by  the  Apostle,  was  after 
his  death,  and  before  his  resurrection.  But  neither  of 
these  conditions  is  possible.  They  are  not  in  the  text. 
The  spirit  here  spoken  of  is  not  the  soul  of  Christ,  but  the 
Holy  Spirit,  or  the  power  of  His  Divinity.  Let  us  look 
at  this  passage  carefully.  The  Apostle's  object  is  to 
exhort  believers  to  suffer  persecution  patiently,  and  be 
ready  always  to  give  a  reason  for  the  hope  that  is  in 
them,  and  to  preserve  a  good  conscience,  although  they 
suifered  for  righteousness'  sake.  [See  the  verses  going 
before.]  And  to  strengthen  them,  the  Apostle  presents 
the  example  of  Christ  himself  also.  Who  hath  once 
suffered  (18-20  verses).  It  seems  to  me  the  only  possible 
inference  here  is,  as  Christ  suffered  and  yet  conquered, 
so  be  of  good  cheer,  you  shall  conquer  also.  The 
only  points  to  be  made  emphatic  in  support  of  my 
views  are, 

1.  Christ  was  put  to  death  in  the  flesh — that  is,  in 
human  nature. 

2.  But  was  quickened  hy  the  Spirit — which  does  not 
mean  his  human  soul,  but  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  same  by 
whom  He  was  conceived  ;  and, 

3.  By  which  Spirit  (19  ver.),  He  went  and  preached — 
that  is,  by  the  ministry  of  ]S"oah,  one  hundred  and  twenty 
years — unto  the  spirits  in  prison.  The  only  meaning  of 
this  passage,  in  the  light  of  Revelation  and  common  sense, 
is,  that  Jesus  Christ,  by  his  Holy  Spirit,  inspired  Noah, 
and  preached  by  Noah  to  the  disobedient  antediluvians, 
who  are  and  were,  when  Peter  wrote,  in  the  prison  of 


CHRIST  PREACHED  BY  NOAH.  215 

hell — the  place  of  lost  souls.  ^    In  confirmation  of  this 
view, 

1.  Noah  is  expressly  called  in  Scripture  a  preacher  of 
righteousness. 

2.  The  Apostle  tells  us  elsewhere  that  the  Spirit  that 
was  in  the  Patriarchs  and  Prophets  of  the  Old  Testament 
was  the  Spirit  of  Christ. 

3.  The  inhabitants  of  the  old  world  were  disobedient, 
as  here  described,  and  were  cut  off  for  their  sins.  They 
were  warned  and  called  to  repentance.     And, 

4.  For  this  very  purpose,  the  Apostle  makes  emphatic 
the  preaching  of  Christ  to  them  by  Noah — to  prove  that 
they  were  without  excuse.  True,  it  had  been  said,  *'My 
Spirit  shall  not  always  strive  with  man."  But  God's 
Spirit — the  Holy  Spirit^the  very  same  by  whom  Christ 
was  conceived,  and  by  which  he  was  raised  from  the 
dead— did  strive  with  them  in  the  days  of  Noah,  but  they 
are  now,  says  he,  in  prison,  for  they  were  disobedient, 
impenitent.     They  would  not  repent. 

The  place,  honestly  and  thoroughly  examined,  then,  is 
not  to  be  interpreted  figuratively — spirits  in  prison  are 
not  Gentiles  and  Jews  in  this  world  in  the  bonds  of 
iniquity,  and  under  the  power  of  Satan  ;  they  are  the  poor 
lost  souls  of  the  old  world  who  rejected  the  preaching  of 
Noah.  Nor  does  the  place  furnish  a  syllable  of  proof 
that  Christ  suffered  himself  the  torments  of  Gehenna, 
either  in  his  soul  before  he  died,  or  when  he  died,  or  that 
his  soul  went  to  Gehenna  before  his  burial  and  his  resur- 
rection, or  that  He  preached  the  Gospel  to  souls  in  Limhus 


*  So  Hammond,  Barrow,  Pearson,  and  a  great  many  of  the  most  learned  and 
best  authors. 


216       "hell"  not  geheni!^a  nor  purgatory. 

Patrum^  and  took  thence  the  Patriarchs  and  Prophets 
with  him  to  Paradise.  The  great  Calmet,  a  Roman  Catho- 
lic, and  a  believer  in  Purgatory,  frankly  admits  this  text 
does  not  admit  such  a  meaning,  nor  teach  this  doctrine. 

It  should  be  here  remembered,  that  the  opinion  that 
Christ's  soul  went  to  hell  to  preach  to  the  souls  of  men 
there,  in  order  to  save  them  by  applying  unto  them  the 
benefits  of  his  death,  is  not  to  be  taken  as  teaching  uni- 
versal salvation  to  all  the  lost.  This  is  not  the  sense  in 
which  this  doctrine  was  generally  applied.  This  is  not 
the  meaning  of  Purgatory  ;  although  by  Jiell^  Hades^  and 
Ivferni^  the  Fathers  who  held  this  view  understood  the 
common  receptacle  of  the  souls  of  all  men,  both  good  and 
bad,  yet  it  was  not  to  the  souls  of  the  wicked  that  Christ 
preached,  but  to  the  souls  of  the  Patriarchs,  Prophets, 
and  of  the  people  of  God.  And  as  those  who  believed 
in  a  Saviour  to  come  were  kept  out  of  heaven  and  shut 
up  in  Purgatory  till  He  came,  so,  since  his  death,  those 
who  believe  in  Him  as  having  come— as  having  already 
and  actually  suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate,  must  also  go 
to  Purgatory.  Certainly,  this  is  a  most  gloomy,  uncom- 
fortable doctrine,  and  in  my  humble  judgment  altogether 
contrary  to  the  Word  of  God.  Nor  can  I  believe  this  is 
the  meaning  of  the  Creed  ;  nor  do  I  believe  that  Christ 
ever  preached  in  any  such  a  place  as  hell,  in  the  meaning 
of  this  interpretation  : 

1.  Because  the  texts  of  the  sacred  writers  produced 
as  proofs  do  not  admit  of  such  an  interpretatioa  as  favors 
this  opinion. 

2.  The  whole  idea  of  Purgatory  is  borrowed  from  the 
Apocrypha  and  a  corruption  of  heathen  superstition. 

3.  The  doctrine  itself  that  Christ  went  to  hell  to  preach 
the  Gospel  is  false,  and  inconsistent  with  the  nature  of 


NO   PREACHING   TO    LOST   SOULS.  217 

the  Gospel  itself.  Tlie  time  does  not  allow  me  to  dwell 
on  this.  But  surely  it  is  admitted  :  1.  That  the  souls  of 
Noah  and  of  the  Patriarchs  are  not  the  disobedient  spirits 
Peter  tells  us  were  in  prison.  Noah,  and  the  Patriarchs 
and  Prophets,  are  remarkable  for  their  obedience — faith 
prompt,  implicit.  They  were  blessed  with  Divine  favor 
before  their  death.     They  received  their  reward. 

2.  If  faith  in  a  Messiah  to  come  was  not  sufficient,  we 
have  no  reason  to  believe  that  faith  in  Jesus  as  the  Mes- 
siah who  has  come  is  any  more  efficacious. 

3.  If  preaching  on  earth  is  not  effectual,  we  see  no 
reason  why  it  should  be  after  death.  If  the  living  hear 
not  Moses  and  the  Prophets,  neither  would  they  be  per- 
suaded though  one  arose  from  the  dead.  And  when 
dead,  neither  would  they  be  persuaded  if  Christ  and  his 
Apostles  were  sent  unto  them. 

4.  In  the  nature  of  things,  probation,  trial,  free  agency, 
implies  retribution,  an  end  of  the  trial. 

5.  The  Word  of  God  everywhere  teaches  that  it  is 
grace,  not  sufferings — not  the  sufferings  of  the  creature, 
but  grace,  that  purifies,  and  saves. 

6.  We  are  not  to  expect  deliverance  from  hell,  because 
the  Word  of  God  teaches  that  the  punishment  of  the 
wicked  is  without  an  end.  The  certainty  of  the  future 
punishment  of  the  wicked  is  as  clearly  and  distinctly  and 
earnestly  taught  in  the  Bible  as  is  the  happiness  of  the  right- 
eous. And  that  there  is  a  place  for  the  punishment  of  the 
incorrigibly  wicked  is  as  positively  taught  in  the  Bible  as 
that  there  is  a  place  for  the  dwelling  of  the  godly  ;  and  the 
duration  of  the  punishment  of  the  wicked  in  the  place  of 


218  HELL       NOT   GEHENI^^A   NOE   PUEGATOEY. 

future  torment  is  described  by  the  very  same  terms  that 
are  used  to  express  the  duration  of  the  happiness  of 
the  pious.  If  the  Word  of  God  does  not  authorize  and 
require  our  belief  in  a  place  of  torment  for  those  who 
disobey  the  Gospel,  then  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  prove 
from  it  that  there  is  any  such  a  place  as  heaven. 

It  seems  proper  to  turn  again  for  a  few  moments  here 
to  the  opinion  of  Pearson.  He  says  the  word  Hades  in 
the  Creed  may  be  taken  in  its  general  sense  for  the  state 
of  the  dead,  or  as  meaning  nothing  more  than  that  Christ 
was  literally  and  truly  buried  ;  and  yet  he  contends  that 
the  meaning  of  the  Article  on  this  subject,  according  to 
the  Church  of  England,  is,  that  Jesus  went  through  the 
regions  of  sorrow  and  of  hell  in  order  to  prove  to  us  that 
we  who  believe  in  Him  are  delivered  from  the  conse- 
quences of  sin,  so  that  we  have  nothing  to  fear  from  hell 
or  the  power  of  Satan. 

As  to  this  opinion,  that  Christ  went  to  hell,  not  to 
suffer  its  torments,  nor  to  preach  to  the  spirits  there  in 
prison,  but  to  triumph  over  Satan  and  all  the  powers  of 
hell  in  their  own  dominions,  and  to  show  thus  to  His 
people  that  they  have  nothing  to  fear  from  hell  and  the 
grave,  nor  from  the  devil  and  his  angels,  let  us  remark : 

1.  It  is  true  that  Christ,  having  spoiled  principalities 
and  powers,  did  make  a  show  of  them  openly,  triumph- 
ing over  them,  and  that  when  He  ascended  up  on  high, 
He  led  captivity  captive,  and  gave  gifts  unto  men.  And  it 
is  true  that  believers  are  more  than  conquerors  over  sin 
and  death,  and  hell  and  the  grave,  through  Him  that 
loved  them,  and  died  for  them.     But — 

2.  It  is  also  true  that  this  triumph  is  everywhere  in 
the  Scriptures  ascribed  to  the  death  of  Christ — not  to  his 


THE   CROSS   HIS    TRIUMPH.  219 

descending  into  hell,  but  to  His  Cross  and  resurrection 
from  the  dead.  Tliere  is  not  a  single  text  or  passage  of 
the  sacred  writers  that  tells  us  that  Christ  descended  into 
hell  to  triumph  there  over  the  devil.  All  those  places 
which  have  been  produced  in  favor  of  any  such  an  opin- 
ion, we  have  found,  when  properly  understood,  wholly 
opposed  to  any  such  meaning.  Leading  captivity  captive 
belongs  to  Christ' s  ascent,  not  to  his  descent.  The  spoil- 
ing of  principalities  and  powers  was  on  Calvary,  and  the 
fastening  of  the  handwriting  of  ordinances  was  to  the 
Cross,  and  the  making  a  public  show  of  his  trophies — all 
refers  to  his  death  on  the  Cross.  His  triumphal  arch  is 
erected  on  Calvary,  not  in  hell.  His  triumphal  proces- 
sion is  not  through  the  infernal  region,  but  from  the 
grave  on  earth  to  heaven.  None  of  his  glorious  achieve- 
ments are  ascribed  to  his  descent  into  hell.  All  is 
ascribed  to  his  death  and  resurrection. 

'• — The  Incarnate  Loed, 
Once  bleeding,  now  triumphant  for  my  sake, 
I  mark  him,  how,  by  seraph  hosts  adored, 
He  to  earth's  lowest  cares  is  still  awake. 

"  The  sun  and  every  vassal  star, 

All  space  beyond  the  soar  of  angel  wings. 

Wait  on  His  word ;  and  yet  he  stays  his  car 

For  every  sigh  a  contrite  suppliant  brings. 

"He  listens  to  the  silent  tear 

For  all  the  anthems  of  the  boundless  sky — 
And  shall  our  dreams  of  music  bar  our  ear 
To  His  soul-piercing  voice,  forever  nigh? 

"  Nay,  gracious  Saviour — ^but  as  now 

Our  thoughts  have  traced  thee  to  thy  glory-throne, 
So  help  us  evermore  with  thee  to  bow — 

Where  human  sorrow  breathes  her  lowly  moan."* 


♦  Keble. 


220  "hell"    ]S"0T    GEHENNA    NOR    PURGATOEY. 

The  essential  meaning  of  the  Article  is  given  in  the 
marginal  reading  of  the  Catechism:  ''He  continued  in 
the  state  of  the  dead,  and  under  the  power  of  death, 
until  the  third  day." 

The  words,  ''  He  descended  into  hell,"  mean  that  the 
soul  of  Christ  was  really  separated  from  his  body,  and 
his  body,  being  truly  a  dead  body,  was  laid  in  the  tomb. 
This  was  necessary,  that  as  our  Surety,  the  second  Adam, 
He  might  undergo  the  condition  of  death — of  the  death 
penalty  pronounced  upon  Adam-— might  be  truly  man  in 
death  as  He  was  when  living.  He  was  born  as  other 
men  are  born.  He  lived  and  died,  physically,  as  other 
men  die.  He  appeared  in  this  world  in  the  similitude  of 
sinful  flesh,  and  went  out  of  this  world  into  the  other 
and  future  world  in  the  same  similitude.  He  died  from 
the  same  causes  that  produce  death  in  any  other  man. 
He  suffered,  he  bled,  he  cried  out,  he  thirsted,  he*  gave 
up  the  ghost  as  any  other  man.  His  body  was  as  lifeless, 
as  dead,  as  the  body  of  the  penitent  thief  at  his  side, 
when  taken  down  from  the  cross.  His  body  was  laid  in 
the  grave  in  the  ordinary  way,  and  his  soul  went  to  God 
who  gave  it,  just  as  the  soul  of  Abraham  did  when  he 
gave  up  the  ghost.  Christ' s  soul  went  to  God  according 
to  his  own  wish  and  direction,  when  He  commended  it  to 
his  Father,  and  the  soul  of  the  penitent  went  with  him. 
But  as  his  conception  was  not  like  that  of  any  other  man, 
as  He  was  conceived  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  so  He  was  the 
Holy  One,  and  his  body  could  not  see  corruption.  The 
death  penalty  had  exhausted  itself  when  He  gave  up  the 
ghost.  But  remember,  my  dear  hearers,  that  He  who 
thus  suffered  was  the  God-man,  the  Mediator,  and  that 
we  have  in  all  His  sufferings  and  in  all  His  triumphs  a 
deep  personal  concern.    For, 


HIS    AMAZING    LOVE.  221 

I.  When  He  emptied  himself  of  his  glory — to  descend 
to  the  womb  of  a  woman,  to  the  lowest  parts  of  the  earth 
— to  engage  in  the  great  work  His  Father  sent  him  to  do 
in  his  state  of  humiliation — then  He  entered  the  palace 
of  the  strong  man  armed,  namely,  the  devil,  the  enemy 
of  God  and  man,  but  being  stronger  than  the  devil,  He  took 
from  him  all  his  armor  in  whi(;h  he  trusted,  and  divided 
his  spoils — took  from  his  list  of  charges  against  us,  the 
long,  heavy  indictment  against  us,  and  the  mortgage  bond 
he  held  upon  our  souls  for  the  heavy  debts  we  are  under, 
and  He  nailed  the  handwriting  of  ordinances  that  con- 
demned us  to  his  own  cross,  and  satisfied  Divine  Jus- 
tice by  the  sacrifice  of  himself,  so  that  through  the  blood 
of  the  everlasting  covenant,  we  who  believe  in  Him  shall 
be  more  than  conquerors  over  sin  and  death,  hell  and  the 
grave. 

II.  Behold,  then,  how  much  He  loved  us  !  How 
closely  are  we  united  to  Him !  He  bore  our  iniquities, 
that  we  might  be  partakers  of  His  heavenly  glory.  Are 
you  then  afflicted  ?  Do  you  suffer  hours  of  terrible  dark- 
ness, when  Satan  seems  almost  to  get  possession  of  you, 
and  you  feel  as  if  surely  God  has  forgotten  to  be  gra- 
cious ?  Then  remember  your  dear  Saviour's  agonizing 
prayer:  ''O  my  Father,  if  it  be  possible,  let  this  cup 
pass  from  me :  nevertheless,  not  as  I  will,  but  as  Thou 
wilt."  And  a  few  moments  afterwards  He  prayed  again, 
saying:  ''O  my  Father,  if  this  cup  may  not  pass  away 
from  me  except  I  drink  it.  Thy  will  be  done."  And  as  it 
was  not  possible  for  it  to  pass  away,  so  He  drank  it. 
But  hark!  what  a  piercing  cry  is  this!  "My  God,  my 
God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me  ?"  And  Jesus,  when  he 
had  thus  cried,  gave  up  the  ghost. 

III.  My  dear  brethren,  there  is  no  enemy  before  us 


222    "hell"  not  GEHENNA  NOR  PURGATORY. 

that  Christ  has  not  already  met  and  already  defeated 
before  us  and  for  us,  and  so  signally  defeated  that  all 
His  followers  are  sure  to  be  more  than  conquerors  in  every 
conflict  to  which  they  are  called  on  their  way  to  His  heav- 
enly kingdom.  Light  shall  surely  arise  after  darkness. 
After  the  storm  there  is  the  happy  haven  into  which  we 
are  certain  to  make  a  glorious  entrance  with  all  sails 
spread. 

Are  you  not,  then,  willing  to  endure  a  little  as  soldiers 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  ?  Are  you  not  willing  to  be  conformed 
to  Him  in  suffering,  as  you  hope  to  be  like  Him  in  glory  ? 
For  if  we  suffer  with  Him,  we  shall  reign  with  Him.  And 
since  He  drank  the  bitter  cup  of  suffering,  that  the  cup 
of  grace  might  be  offered  to  us,  surely  we  should  submit 
to  the  chastisements  of  His  love  ;  they  are  to  strengthen 
our  holy  desires — try  our  devout  affections  and  exercise 
our  labor  of  love. 

Dear  friend,  have  you  seen  the  Son  of  God  in  tears  ? 
Have  you  seen  His  bloody  sweat  1  Have  you  heard  His 
piercing  cry  when  He  died  drinking  the  dregs  of  the  cup 
of  Divine  wrath,  and  have  you  never  in  remembrance  of 
Him  taken  your  place  at  the  Lord' s  Supper  1  He  died 
for  you — died  to  open  to  you  the  gate  of  heaven.  Why 
then  are  you  not  converted  and  saved  ?  Though  indeed 
Christ  were  born  a  thousand  times  in  Bethlehem,  and 
crucified  again  on  Calvary,  and  not  born  in  thee,  thou  art 
eternally  lost. 

O,  Almighty  God,  most  gracious  and  merciful,  raise 
up,  we  humbly  pray  Thee,  thy  power,  and  come  among 
us,  and  create  us  anew  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  with  great 
might  succor,  strengthen,  and  help  us  by  Thy  grace  ;  and 
whereas  through  our  many  sins,  and  shortcomings,  and 
wickedness,  we  are  sore  let  and  hindered  in  running  the 


A    PRAYER    FOR   HELP.  223 

race  that  is  set  before  us  ;  0,  be  graciously  pleased,  in 
thy  sovereign  mercy,  speedily  to  help  and  deliver  us, 
through  the  sacrifice  and  satisfaction  of  Thy  Dear  Son, 
our  Lord,  to  whom,  with  Thee,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  be 
honor  and  glory,  world  without  end.    Amen. 


224  CHRIST   EOSE   THE   TIIIRI*   DAY. 


XI. 


CHRIST  ROSE  THE   THIRD  DAY. 


"  That  like  as  Christ  was  raised  up  from  the  dead  by  the  glory  of  the  Father, 
even  so  we  also  should  walk  in  newness  of  life." — Rom.  vi.  4. 

"  Say  not  in  thine  heart,  "Who  shall  ascend  into  Heaven  ?  (that  is,  to  bring 
Christ  down  from  above  :)  Or,  Who  shall  descend  into  the  deep  ?  (that  is,  to  bring 
up  Christ  again  from  the  dead.)  But  wliat  saith  it  ?  The  word  is  nigh  thee,  even  in 
thy  mouth,  and  in  thy  heart :  that  is,  the  word  of  faith  which  we  preach  ;  that  if 
thou  shalt  confess  with  thy  mouth  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  shalt  believe  in  thine 
heart  that  God  hath  raised  him  from  the  dead,  thou  shalt  be  saved.  For  with 
the  heart  man  believeth  unto  righteousness  ;  and  with  the  mouth  coufession  is 
made  unto  salvation." — Rom.  x.  6-10. 

"  For  I  delivered  unto  you  first  of  all  that  which  I  also  received,  how  that 
Christ  died  for  our  sins  according  to  the  Scriptures  ;  and  that  he  was  buried,  and 
that  he  rose  again  the  third  day  according  to  the  Scriptures,"  &c. — 1  COR.  xv.  3,  4. 

So  prominent  is  the  fact  of  our  Lord' s  resurrection  in 
the  preaching  of  the  Apostles  on  the  day  of  Pentecost 
and  ever  afterwards,  as  well  as  in  some  of  their  Epistles, 
that  the  truth  of  all  we  are  taught  in  the  New  Testament 
concerning  Christ  depends  on  the  fact  of  his  resurrection. 
It  is  necessary  to  the  proof  of  the  Divinity  of  his  person, 
the  genuineness  of  his  mission,  the  efficacy  of  his  atone- 
ment, and  the  eternal  life  of  his  people.  When  Philip 
preached  Jesus  from  Isaiah  to  the  Ethiopian,  he  told  him 
that    the    condition    on    which    he   might   be  baptized 


IMPORTANCE   OF   THE   DOCTRIITE.  225 

and  saved  was  :  *'  If  tliou  belie  vest  with  all  thine 
heart."  And  the  Ethiopian  ans\yered  :  ''I  believe  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God."  That  is,  he  believed 
all  that  Philip  had  preached  to  him  concerning  the  life, 
Messiahship,  death,  resurrection,  and  ascension  of  Jesus. 
That  is,  he  preached  as  Paul  preached,  saying,  '^  If  thou 
shalt  confess  with  thy  mouth  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  believe 
in  thine  heart  that  God  hath  raised  him  from  the  dead, 
thou  shalt  be  saved."  And  so  also  Paul,  in  his  discourse 
in  the  synagogue  at  Antioch  (Acts  xiii.),  boldly  declares 
that  the  voices  of  the  Prophets  read  every  Sabbath  were 
fulfilled  in  the  things  which  the  Jewish  rulers  and  people, 
with  the  Gentiles,  did  unto  Jesus,  and  that  Moses,  David, 
and  all  their  sacred  writers  had  foretold  the  sufferings 
and  death  of  the  Messiah,  just  such  sufferings,  and  just 
such  a  death  and  burial  and  resurrection  as  the  admitted 
facts  of  the  day  declared  to  have  been  accomplished  in 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  and  that,  therefore.  He  was  the  true 
Messiah  of  God.  Nothing  can  excel  the  point  and  power 
of  the  Apostle's  argument  in  this  case.  It  is  precisely 
the  argument  used  by  Peter  on  the  day  of  Pentecost. 

And  it  may  be  well  here  to  observe,  that  whatever 
disputes  have  been  carried  on  about  the  other  Articles  of 
our  Creed  by  the  Fathers  and  the  Schoolmen,  and  by  the 
theologians  of  the  Reformation,  they  have  almost  uni- 
versally agreed  about  this  one.  Among  them  all,  it  has 
been  recognized  as  the  corner-stone  of  the  Church  of  God, 
without  which  it  would  fall  to  the  ground,  'Hhe  pillar 
of  Christianity  itself."  Its  nature,  and  the  consequences 
inevitably  flowing  from  it,  if  true,  are  of  such  importance 
that  it  is  an  essential,  fundamental  Article  of  our  holy 
faith.  The  Apostle,  in  1  Cor.  xv.,  shows  conclusively, 
that  if  Christ  did  not  rise  again  the  third  day  from  the 
lead,  according  to  the  Scriptures,  then  we  have  no 
:5 


226  CHEIST   K03E   THE   THIED   DAY. 

Church,  no  Gospel,  and  Christianity  itself  is  nothing. 
'^  And  our  preaching  is  vain,  and  your  faith  is  also  vain. 
Yea,  and  we  are  found  false  witnesses  of  God  ;  because 
we  have  testified  of  God  that  He  raised  up  Christ ;  whom 
He  raised  not  up,  if  so  be  that  the  dead  rise  not.  For  if 
the  dead  rise  not,  then  is  not  Christ  raised ;  and  if  Christ 
be  not  raised,  your  faith  is  vain  ;  ye  are  yet  in  your  sins. 
But  now  is  Christ  risen  from  the  dead,  and  become  the 
first-fruits  of  them  that  slept.  For  since  by  man  came 
death,  by  man  came  also  the  resurrection  of  the  dead." 

In  the  light  of  so  many  clear  passages  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture that  assert,  imply,  or  allude  to  the  resurrection  of 
Jesus,  it  is  astonishing  that  any  one  claiming  to  be  a 
Christian  at  all  should  deny  it,  or  have  any  cavils  about 
this  Article  of  our  Creed  ;  and  yet,  according  to  the  public 
journals,  an  assembly  or  synod  of  Protestant  divines  and 
laymen  in  Europe  have  passed  solemn  resolutions  by  a 
large  majority  vote,  within  the  last  few  months,  to  the 
efi^ect  that  we  have  no  satisfactory  and  consistent  account 
of  the  resurrection  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  "^  In  fact,  the  direct 
and  inevitable  tendency  of  all  those  theological  specula- 
tions that  throw  doubts  on  the  inspired  authority  of 
God' s  Word,  and  do  not  recognize  the  death  of  Christ  as 
an  atonement  or  vicarious  sacrifice  for  sin,  and  do  not 
receive  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  and  salvation 
by  free  grace,  is  to  ignore  or  set  aside  the  doctrine  of 
Christ's  resurrection.     It  is  of  great  importance,   there- 


♦This  Synod  met  in  Nismes,  France,  in  the  summer  of  1866.  I  refer  to  the 
proceedings  as  published  at  the  time  from  memory,  and  simply  as  an  illustration 
of  the  signs  of  apostasy  in  our  day.  I  feel  rery  confident  that  my  allusion  is 
fiiUy  supported  by  tlie  published  notices  of  the  meeting.  It  is,  however,  exceed- 
ingly gratifying  to  know  that  Guizot,  Pressense,  and  others  of  like  views,  are 
making  their  influence  felt  in  France  in  favor  of  the  old  faith  of  the  Reformed 
French  Church. 


WITNESSES    OF   THE   RESURRECTION.  227 

fore,  to  find  an  Article  of  our  holy  faith  setting  forth  so 
clearly  and  firmly  the  fact  that  in  all  ages,  from  the  time 
of  the  crucifixion  and  resurrection  of  Jesus,  it  has  been 
most  surely  believed  that  "the  third  day  He  rose  again 
from  the  dead."  Such  testimony  from  the  voice  of  the 
holy  apostolic  universal  Church  is  a  safeguard  for  those 
who  love  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus.  According  to  the 
Scriptures,  the  Church  on  earth  is  God's  witness  to  testify 
concerning  the  Lord  Jesus,  His  Holy  Anointed  One,  and 
is  especially  set  forth  in  the  world  to  bear  witness  of  His 
resurrection  from  the  dead.  Thus,  in  choosing  Matthias, 
it  is  said  :  "  Wherefore  of  these  men,  which  have  com- 
panied  with  us  all  the  time  that  the  Lord  Jesus  went  in 
and  out  among  us,  mnst  one  be  ordained  to  be  a  witness 
with  us  of  Ms  resurrection.^^  And  accordingly  God  did 
pre-design  witnesses  for  this  purpose — such  persons  as 
were  best  fitted  to  give  the  proper  testimony — persons 
well  qualified  to  know  and  state  the  truth,  and  sufficient 
in  number  to  establish  a  fact  by  law.  They  were  so  well 
acquainted  with  our  Lord' s  person  before  his  death,  and 
admitted  to  such  familiar  intercourse  with  him  after  his 
resurrection,  that  it  is  impossible  for  them  to  have  been 
themselves  deceived.  Nor  are  we  able  to  discover  any 
possible  motive  they  could  have  had  to  deceive  others. 
And  besides  the  many  separate,  distinct  appearances  of 
our  Lord  to  different  parties,  at  different  times  and  under 
different  circumstances,  and  for  the  space  of  forty  days, 
we  have  the  testimony  of  above  fiye  hundred  eye-wit- 
nesses that  He  did  appear  alive  in  his  human  body  after 
his  resurrection,  and  gave  them  such  tokens  and  signs  of 
the  identity  of  the  body  in  which  He  appeared  to  them 
with  the  body  in  which  He  was  crucified,  that  they  did 
firmly  believe  in  the  reality  of  his  resurrection  ;  and  He 
the  more  convinced  them  of  this  by  continuing  with  them 
and  speaking  to  them  mya^y^giffiS^^e^ancerning  the  king- 


228  CHRIST   EOSE   THE   THIRD   DAY. 

dom  of  God.  And  as  we  do  not  see  how  it  was  possible 
for  so  many  eye-witnesses  to  be  deceived,  or  to  desire  to 
deceive  others,  so  we  are  not  able  to  conceive  how  it  was 
possible  for  them  to  have  succeeded  in  deceiving  them- 
selves or  the  world  in  such  a  matter  of  fact  as  this,  if 
they  had  been  wicked  and  reckless  enough  to  have  tried 
to  do  so. 

In  the  two  Discourses  already  delivered  on  the  fifth 
Article  of  our  Creed,  it  was  my  object  to  show  in  what 
sense  our  Lord  descended  into  Tiell,  and  that  whatever 
Gehenna  or  Purgatory  may  or  may  not  be,  our  Creed 
knows  notliing  of  them.  As  I  am  now  travelling  on  the 
line  of  the  Apostles'  Creed,  I  do  not  wish  to  be  turned 
aside  to  other  discussions,  however  important  they  may 
be.  The  other  clause  of  the  fifth  Article  is  :  "  The  third 
day  He  roseagain  from  the  dead.''''  This  is  a  distinct, 
positive  proposition,  and  I  propose,  with  God's  assist- 
ance, the  following  method :  namely, 

First.  A  brief  history  of  the  Article,  and  some  expo- 
sition of  its  main  particulars.     And  the 

Secokd  Discourse,  for  next  Sabbath  evening,  if  the 
Lord  be  pleased  to  grant  us  his  blessing,  will  be  a  brief 
historical  demonstration  of  the  truth  of  our  Lord's  resur- 
rection. 

I.  Historically,  we  find  this  Article  in  all  the  ancient 
creeds  just  as  it  stands  in  the  Apostles'  Creed,  coming 
after  our  Lord's  burial  or  descent  into  hell,  and  followed 
by  his  ascension,  sitting  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father 
Almighty,  and  coming  to  judgment.  There  are  no  essen- 
tial variations  in  its  wording — no  variations  at  all  except 
as  to  some  small  matters  of  mere  taste  as  to  the  use  or 
omission  of  ''again,"  or  ''from  the  dead,"  some  consid- 


THE   RESURRECTION   DENIED.  229 

ering  these  words  as  implied  in  He  rose^  and  not  neces- 
sary to  the  meaning.  This  Article  was  inserted  in  the 
symbols  of  the  Church's  faith  in  ancient  times,  and  pre- 
served with  fidelity  just  as  we  have  it ;  firsts  because  it  is 
stated  with  singular  emphasis  by  the  Apostles ;  and,  sec- 
ondly^ because  it  was  a  proper  denial  of  many  foolish 
and  wicked  conceits  that  were  taught  by  false  teachers 
even  in  Apostolic  times.  For  we  learn  from  Paul  to  Tim- 
othy that  there  were  false  teachers  in  his  day  who  said 
**  the  resurrection  was  already  past."  2  Tim.  ii.  18.  And 
from  1  Cor.  xv.  12,  that  there  were  some  who  said  "  there 
is  no  resurrection  of  the  dead.''  The  Sadducees,  who 
denied  a  future  state,  and  denied  all  resurrection,  did  not 
of  course  admit  the  resurrection  of  Christ.  The  Essenes, 
who  seem  to  have  been  quite  a  large  sect  in  the  first  cen- 
turies of  our  era,  believed  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul, 
but  denied  the  resurrection  of  the  body.  Then,  of  course, 
Simon  Magus,  the  Docetse,  and  all  the  errorists  of  those 
days  who  denied  the  real  and  proper  humanity  of  our 
Lord  Jesus,  denied  also  the  reality  of  his  resurrection 
and  ascension.  Augustine  tells  us,  that  the  Cerinthians 
held  that  Jesus,  whom  they  took  to  be  a  mere  man,  had 
not  risen,  but  was  yet  to  rise.  Apelles,  a  disciple  of  Mar- 
cion,  held  that  when  Christ  came  from  heaven,  He  formed 
for  himself  as  He  descended  an  airy  and  sidereal  flesh, 
but  when  He  arose  and  ascended  into  heaven.  He  restored 
this  body  to  its  pristine  elements,  which  being  thus  dis- 
persed,. His  spirit  alone  returned  to  heaven.* 

It  does  not  seem  to  me  necessary,  or  for  our  edification, 
to  have  at  present  any  farther  details  concerning  the 
fables  and  conceits  of  many  men  who  have  tried  to  be 
wise  above  what  is  written  in  the  Word  of  God  for  our 

*  BrowTie,  p.  99,  and  our  Appendix. 


230  CHEIST   HOSE   THE   THIED   DAY. 

instruction  concerning  the  resurrection  of  Christ.  Quite 
enough  has  been  said  to  show  that  the  strong  language 
of  the  Article  in  the  Church  of  England,  and  in  our  Con- 
fession of  Faith,  and  in  our  Catechism,  and  in  the  Cate- 
chism of  Heidelberg,  is  justified,  and  was  no  doubt 
designed  to  oppose  the  exaggerated  opinions  that  were 
advanced  on  the  one  hand  by  those  who  taught  that  our 
Lord's  body  after  his  ascension  had  ceased  to  be  human, 
by  being  transubstantiated  into  his  Divinity  ;  and  to 
oppose  also,  on  the  other  hand,  the  absurd  views  enter- 
tained by  all  those  who  denied  the  verity  of  his  essential 
humanity. 

The  words  of  our  standards  on  this  point  are :  ''On 
the  third  day  He  arose  from  the  dead,  with  the  same  body 
in  which  he  suffered  ;  with  which  also  He  ascended  into 
heaven,  and  there  sitteth  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father, 
making  intercession." — Conf.  FaitTi^  Chap.  viii.  sec.  4. 
And  the  Fourth  Article,  Church  of  England,  says,  "  Christ 
did  truly  rise  again  from  death,  and  took  again  his  body, 
with  flesh,  bones,  and  all  things  appertaining  to  the  per- 
fection of  a  Man's  nature,  wherewith  He  ascended  into 
heaven,  and  there  sitteth  until  He  return  to  judge  all  men 
at  the  last  day."  The  same  doctrines  are  taught  in  the 
symbols  or  formularies  of  the  faith  of  the  Christian  world  ; 
but  perhaps  nowhere  set  forth  with  more  clearness  and 
emphasis  than  in  the  questions  51  and  52  of  the  Larger 
Catechism,  with  their  answers,  which  are  as  follows  : 

Q.  51.    What  was  the  estate  of  Christ's  exaltation  ? 

A.  The  estate  of  Christ' s  exaltation  comprehendeth  his 
resurrection,  ascension,  sitting  at  the  right  hand  of  the 
Father,  and  his  coming  again  to  judge  the  world. 


CHRIST    EXALTED    IN   THE   RESURRECTION.  231 

Q.  52.  IIow  was  Christ  exalted  in  his  resurrection  f 

A.  Christ  was  exalted  in  his  resurrection,  in  that,  not 
having  seen  corruption  in  death  (of  which  it  was  not  pos- 
sible for  him  to  be  held),  and  having  the  very  same  body 
in  which  he  suffered,  with  the  essential  properties  thereof 
(but  without  mortality  and  other  common  infirmities 
belonging  to  this  life),  really  united  to  his  soul,  he  rose 
again  from  the  dead  the  third  day  by  his  own  power  ; 
whereby  he  declared  himself  to  be  the  Son  of  God,  to 
have  satisfied  Divine  Justice,  to  have  vanquished  death 
and  him  that  had  the  power  of  it,  and  to  be  Lord  of 
quick  and  dead.  All  which  he  did  as  a  public  person, 
the  Head  of  his  Church,  for  their  justification,  quickening 
in  grace,  support  against  enemies,  and  to  assure  them  of 
their  resurrection  from  the  dead  at  the  last  day. 

In  the  proposition  of  the  Creed :  the  third  day  he 
ROSE  AGAIN  FROM  THE  DEAD,  there  are  three  particulars 
to  be  noticed : 

I.  The  simple  statement  of  the  fact  itself,  He  rose 
again, 

II.  ''He  rose  again  from  the  dead,''''     And, 

III.  He  rose  again  from  the  dead  the  third  day. 

The  thing  affirmed  is  the  resurrection  of  Christ, — the 
action  itself.  He  rose  again.  This  part  of  our  subject 
may  be  dealt  with  in  this  way  :  namely.  Firsts  show  from 
the  Hebrew  Scriptures  that  the  ancient  Jewish  Church 
believed  that  the  Messiah  was  to  rise  from  the  dead  ;  and, 
Secondly^  show  from  the  New  Testament  that  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  did  rise  from  the  dead  just  as  it  was  promised 
and  foretold  the  Messiah  should  do ;  and,  therefore,  we 
believe  this  Article  is  true,  and  that  Jesus  is  the  true  and 


232  CHRIST   EOSE   THE   THIRD   DAT. 

only  Messiah.    This  is  the  line  of  argument  offered  by 
Bishop  Pearson. 

I.  It  is  directly  and  repeatedly  declared  by  the  Apos- 
tles, as  well  as  by  our  Saviour  himself,  that  his  suf- 
ferings and  resurrection  were  according  to  the  Scriptures. 
Paul  asserts,  in  one  of  the  places  cited  in  the  beginning 
of  this  Discourse,  that  he  constantly  preached  that  Jesus 
rose  again  from  the  dead  the  third  day^  according  to  the 
Scriptures.  And  our  Lord  himself,  in  his  discoursing 
with  the  two  disciples  on  the  road  to  Emmaus,  after  they 
had  recited  to  him  the  things  which  had  just  come  to 
pass  in  Jerusalem ;  namely,  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  a 
Prophet  mighty  in  deed  and  word  before  God  and  all  the 
people,  had  been  delivered  by  the  chief  priests  and  rulers 
to  be  condemned  to  death,  and  tliat  He  had  actually  been 
crucified,  and  besides  all  this,  to-day,  said  they,  is  the 
third  day  since  these  things  were  done.  Yea,  and  certain 
women  also  of  our  company  made  us  astonished  which 
were  early  at  the  sepulchre  ;  and  when  they  found  not 
his  body,  they  came,  saying,  that  they  had  also  seen  a 
vision  of  angels,  which  said  that  He  was  alive.  And 
certain  of  them  which  were  with  us  went  to  the  sepulchre, 
and  found  it  even  so  as  the  women  had  said ;  but  Him 
they  saw  not.  Then  said  Jesus  unto  them,  O  fools  and 
slow  of  heart  to  believe  all  that  the  prophets  have  spoTcen : 
Ought  not  Christ  (who  is  the  Messiah)  to  have  suffered 
these  things,  and  to  enter  into  his  glory  ?  And  beginning 
at  Moses  and  all  the  Prophets,  he  expounded  unto  them 
in  all  the  Scriptures  the  things  concerning  himself.  ■  And 
afterwards,  late  in  the  evening,  after  long  communing 
with  them,  when,  as  they  say  themselves,  their  hearts 
were  burning  within  them,  unconsciously  testifying  of 
Jesus  while  He  talked  with  them,  and  while  He  opened 
to  them  the  Scriptures— for  all  this  time  "  their  eyes  were 


CHRIST   IN   THE   JEWISH   CHUECH.  233 

holden  that  they  should  not  know  him" — but  when  it 
was  towards  evening,  ^'he  opened  their  eyes  and  they 
knew  him  ;  and  he  vanished  out  of  their  sight.  And 
they  rose  up  the  same  hour  and  returned  to  Jerusalem, 
and  found  the  eleven  gathered  together,  and  them  that 
were  with  them.  Saying^  the  Lord  is  risen  indeed  and 
hath  appeared  to  Simon.^' 

Observe  here,  1.  That  the  Jews  then  had  and  acknow- 
ledged as  their  Holy  Scriptures  the  very  same  books  that 
we  have,  and  spoke  of  them  as  consisting  of  the  same 
divisions  that  we  recognize.  Our  Saviour  speaks  of 
''Moses  and  all  the  Prophets,  and  expounded,  unto  them 
in  all  the  Scriptures."  And  in  the  verses  following,  when 
He  appeared  to  the  disciples  and  did  eat  a  piece  of  broiled 
fish  and  honeycomb,  He  said  unto  them,  These  are  the 
words  which  I  spake  unto  you  while  I  was  yet  with  you, 
that  all  things  must  he  fulfilled  which  were  written  in  the 
law  of  Ifoses,  and  in  the  Prophets,  and  in  the  Psalms, 
concerning  me. 

2.  It  was  then  admitted  by  the  Jewish  Church  that 
their  Scriptures  did  promise  and  speak  of  a  Messiah  to 
come.  When  these  two  disciples  had  recited  the  facts  of 
the  sufferings,  death,  and  resurrection  of  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth, our  Lord  immediately  replied  that  these  were  the 
very  things  their  own  prophets  had  spoken  concerning 
the  Messiah.  Ought  not  Christ — which  you  know  is  the 
Greek  for  Messiah — ought  not  this  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  who 
claimed  to  be  the  Messiah,  and  who  was  as  you  believe 
the  Messiah — who  should  have  redeemed  Israel ;  I  say, 
if  Jesus  of  whom  you  speak  was  indeed  the  Redeemer  of 
Israel,  as  you  once  hoped  he  was,  ought  He  not,  accord- 
ing to  your  Prophets,  to  have  suffered  precisely  these 
things  and  to  enter  into  His  glory  ?  And  then  to  prove 
this,   "  beginning  at  Moses  and  all  the  Prophets,  He 


234  CHRIST   ROSE   THE    THIRD    DAY. 

expounded  unto  them  in  all  the  Scriptures  the  things 
concerning  himself  .^^     And, 

3.  On  the  very  same  point,  and  at  the  same  time, 
as  a  proof  also  that  Jesns  had  foretold  his  sufferings  and 
resurrection  to  his  disciples,  observe  what  He  says  to 
them  when  He.  appeared  to  them  after  his  resurrection, 
and  when  they  were  so  terrified  and  affrighted,  and  sup- 
posed that  they  had  seen  a  spirit,  that  in  order  to  calm 
their  troubled  hearts,  and  give  them  the  strongest  assu- 
rance that  it  was  He  himself,  their  own  real  and  true  Lord 
and  Master,  that  He  said:  "Behold  my  hands  and  my 
feet,  that  it  is  I  myself.  Handle  me,  and  see ;  for  a  spirit 
hath  not  flesh  and  bones  as  ye  see  me  have.  And  when 
He  had  thus  spoken,  He  shewed  them  His  hands  and  His 
feet.  And  then  they  gave  Him  a  piece  of  a  broiled  fish 
and  of  an  honeycomb,  and  He  took  it  and  did  eat  before 
them.  And  He  said  unto  them.  These  are  the  words  which 
I  spake  unto  you^  while  I  was  yet  with  you^  that  all 
things  must  he  fulfilled,  which  were  written  in  the  law 
{that  is,  in  the  five  hooks  of  Moses),  and  in  the  Prophets, 
and  in  the  Psalms,  concerning  me. ' '  These  are  the  words ^ 
said  Jesus,  that  is,  the  things  that  have  come  to  pass  in 
these  days  here  in  Jerusalem,  and  about  which  you  are 
so  much  concerned,  and  which  are  just  the  things  I  was  in 
the  habit  of  talking  to  you  about.  I  taught  them  to  you  out 
of  your  own  Scriptures.  They  are  the  things  concerning  me 
which  you  should  believe.  And  "then  opened  He  their 
understanding,  that  they  might  understand  the  Scriptures. 
And  He  said  unto  them,  Thus  it  is  written,  and  thus  it 
behoved  Christ  to  suffer,  and  to  rise  from  the  dead  the 
third  day  :  and  that  repentance  and  remission  of  sins 
should  be  preached  in  his  name  among  all  nations,  begin- 
ning at  Jerusalem.  And  ye  are  witnesses  of  these  things. '  * 
Luke  xxiv. 


THERE   ARE   NOT   TWO    MESSIAHS.  235 

So  clearly  do  tlie  Hebrew  Scriptures  speak  of  a  suffer- 
ing Messiah  as  well  as  of  a  glorious  and  conquering  and 
reigning  and  exalted  Messiah,  that  modern  Jewish  doctors 
have  held  that  there  were  to  be  two  Messiahs :  one  to 
fulfil  the  prophecies  concerning  the  suffering  Messiah, 
whose  earthly  sorrows  were  to  end  in  a  bloody  death ; 
and  the  other  to  fulfil  the  predictions  concerning  a 
Messiah  who  was  to  conquer  and  reign  as  the  Son  of 
David,  and  restore  their  nation  to  the  golden  age  and  land 
of  their  fathers.  "^  It  is  not  necessary  to  spend  a  breath 
in  proving  that  the  Scriptures  knoAV  nothing  of  two 
Messiahs.  There  is  but  one  Mediator  between  God  and 
men.  Nor  can  it  need  illustration  in  such  a  presence  as 
this,  that  both  classes  of  the  Hebrew  texts  concerning  the 
Messiah  who  was  to  come — both  those  that  foretell  his 
sufferings  and  the  glory  that  should  follow,  as  Moses  and 
Elias  did  on  the  mount  of  transfiguration,  are  fulfilled  in 
Jesus  of  JN'azareth.  The  things  foretold  as  to  happen 
to  the  Messiah,  are  the  very  things  which  did  happen  to 
Jesus  of  Nazareth.  The  predictions  of  a  suffering  Mes- 
siah were  fulfilled  in  his  state  of  humiliation,  and  the  pre- 
dictions of  a  conquering,  exalted,  and  reigning  Messiah 
are  fulfilled  in  his  state  of  exaltation.  ''  For  Him  hath  God 
exalted  with  his  right  hand  to  be  a  Prince  and  a  Saviour." 
But  I  have  not  time,  nor  do  I  think  it  necessary,  to  enter 
further  upon  details  to  prove  that  the  Jewish  Church 
believed  in  a  Messiah  who  was  to  rise  from  the  dead. 
For  all  those  places  in  the  Psalms  and  in  the  Prophets 
that  speak  of  his  sufferings  and  death,  and  then  of  his 
glory,  and  of  his  kingdom,  involve  the  necessity  of  his 
resurrection  from  the  dead.  According  also  to  the  types, 
as  well  as  to  fulfil  the  prophetic  oracles,  the  Messiah 


Pacatumque  x'egot,  patriis  yirtutibus,  orbem.     See  Vth  Discourse. 


L 


236  CHRIST    ROSE   THE   THIRD   DAY. 

promised  to  the  Jewish  Church  was  to  rise  from  the  dead. 
And  now,  secondly^  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  did  rise  from 
the  dead  the  third  day,  as  our  Article  affirms,  and  just 
as  it  was  promised  in  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  the 
Messiah  should  do,  I  have  need  only  to  point  you  to  the 
history  of  the  event  itself  in  the  Gospels,  and  the  repeated 
declarations  and  allusions  to  it  by  the  Apostles  in  their 
discourses  and  Epistles.  But  just  here  I  only  wish  to  say 
on  this  point,  that  if  the  proofs  of  the  resurrection  of 
Jesus  Christ  are  not  sufficient  to  establish  its  truth,  then 
no  matter  of  fact  on  earth  can  be  established  by  testi- 
mony. As  a  '*  sturdy  "old  author  says — to  refuse  the 
proof  we  have  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus,  "is  in  effect 
to  decline  all  proof  by  testimony,  to  renounce  all  certainty 
in  human  affairs,  to  remove  all  grounds  of  proceeding 
securely  in  any  business  or  administration  of  justice,  to 
impeach  all  history  of  fabulousness,  to  charge  all  man- 
kind with  insufficiency  of  perception,  or  extreme  infi- 
delity, and  to  thrust  God  away  from  bearing  credible 
attestation  in  any  case."* 

II.  The  second  particular  which  I  am  to  notice  is  that 
**  He  rose  again  from  the  dead."  The  subject  of  this 
affirmation,  He^  is  Jesus  Christ,  who  ''suffered  under 
Pontius  Pilate,  was  crucified,  dead  and  buried :  He 
descended  into  hell.  The  third  day  he  rose  again  from 
the  dead."  And  still  more,  it  is  of  his  human  nature  this 
affirmation  is  made.  As  to  his  Divinity,  no  accession  of 
glory  is  predicable.  God  is  the  highest,  and  cannot 
ascend.  He  is  always  the  ever  blessed  and  unchangeable 
in  all  His  perfections.  The  words,  ''  He  rose  again  from 
the  dead" — imply,  1.  That  He  was  really  dead.      This 


*  Quoted  from  Barrow  in  Bethune,  vol.  i.  p.  436. 


JEWISH   SEPULCHEE8.  237 

has  been  proved  beyond  the  possibility  of  donbt.  His 
friends,  his  enemies,  the  Roman  guard,  Pilate  and  the 
centurion,  have  all  given  their  testimony  that  his  death 
was  real.  The  piercing  of  his  side  by  the  soldier' s  spear 
itself  was  enough  to  make  sure  of  his  death.  2.  He  was 
also  actually  buried — laid  in  the  new  tomb  of  Joseph  of 
Arimathea,  in  a  garden.  Although  He  was  so  soon  to 
rise  again,  yet  He  was  honored  with  a  solemn  funeral, 
and  His  burial  was  according  to  the  Scriptures,  and  the 
marks  of  honor  bestowed  upon  Him  at  His  funeral  com- 
pleted the  evidences  that  in  His  state  of  humiliation  he 
met  all  the  requirements  of  the  promised  Messiah.  He  was 
not  carried  from  his  own  house  to  his  tomb,  but  from  a 
Roman  cross,  by  a  small  but  honorable  and  select  train, 
who  were  unable  from  the  shortness  of  the  time  to  prepare 
His  body  as  they  wished  for  His  burial.  It  was  not  the 
burial  of  an  earthly  conqueror,  but  of  the  Prince  of  Life, 
who  even  then  held  in  his  hands  the  keys  of  death  and  hell. 
The  rent  veil,  the  opened  graves,  and  the  earthquake  after 
the  darkened  sun,  attested  that  it  was  God's  own  Son  that 
was  laid  in  the  tomb.  His  body  was  not  enclosed  in  a 
coffin  of  wood  or  iron,  as  with  us,  but  was  laid  in  a  recess 
or  niche — on  a  kind  of  shelf  somewhat  like  a  vault  in  our 
house  of  reception  for  dead  bodies,  except  that  it  was  the 
side  and  not  the  head  that  was  toward  the  open  court. 
Nor  was  there  any  wall,  door,  or  slab  to  fill  the  moUth  of  the 
vault  or  recess  where  the  body  was  laid.  To  fully  under- 
stand the  passages  of  the  Gospel  narratives  of  the  burial 
and  resurrection  of  our  Lord,  we  must  remember  some 
minute  matters  concerning  Jewish  sepulchres.  They  dif- 
fered in  several  particulars  from  our  ordinary  graveyards. 
The  sepulchres  of  wealthy  Jews  were  made  out  of  caverns 
in  the  rocks.  Sometimes  a  natural  cave  was  selected,  and 
cut  and  changed  to  their  taste.  Others  cut  their  tombs 
out  of  the  living  rock — this  was  the  way  Joseph's  tomb 


238  CHRIST   EOSE   THE   THIED    DAY. 

was  made.  It  was  liewn  out  of  a  rock.  There  was  then 
no  possible  outlet  from  it,  or  way  to  get  into  it  but  by 
the  door.  Let  this  be  noted.  It  was  hewn  out  of  the 
solid,  living  limestone  rock.  Ordinarily  the  entrance  into 
such  a  sepulchre  was  first  a  descent  into  an  open  area,  or 
kind  of  court,  the  covering  of  which  was  the  living  rock 
itself,  and  then,  if  you  looked  around  on  each  side,  you 
would  see  a  recess  some  six  feet  or  more  lower  than  the 
area  in  which  you  are  standing.  And  these  recesses  also 
had  cavities  or  niches  of  their  own,  in  which  the  dead 
bodies  were  laid.  Of  course  their  sepulchres  were  not 
always  precisely  of  the  same  shape  or  size.  This  is  a 
description  of  an  ordinary  one,  such  as  might  have 
belonged  to  a  man  of  wealth,  like  Joseph  of  Arimathea. 
Usually  there  were  places  in  such  a  tomb  for  twelve  or  fif- 
teen bodies,  or  more  if  the  family  was  very  large.  There 
is  no  difiiculty  then  in  our  record,  which  speaks  of  John 
and  Peter  having  entered  into  the  sepulchre  where  our 
Lord  was  laid,  *'and,  stooping  down,  looked  into  the 
place,"  the  niche  below  the  entrance  area,  where  the  body 
of  our  dear  Lord  had  been  laid.  But  while  the  rest  are 
standing  in  the  area,  and  looking  down  into  the  recep- 
tacles where  the  dead  bodies  were  to  be  placed,  Peter, 
true  to  his  nature,  actually  descends,  and  goes  to  the  very 
recess  whence  the  dead  body  of  Jesus  had  just  risen. 
[See  Lig^tfoot  and  Witsius.] 

Fme  circumstances  are  to  be  noted  in  the  narrative. 
(1.)  Our  Lord' s  tomb  was  not  in  the  family  vault  of  Joseph 
the  carpenter  of  Nazareth,  but  the  sepulchre  of  Joseph  of 
Arimathea.  Our  Lord  was  not  born  in  a  house  belonging 
to  his  reputed  father,  nor  was  He  buried  in  a  tomb  that 
was  his  own.  He  was  born  and  lived  among  the  poor, 
but  had  his  tomb  with  the  rich  ;  for  the  Scriptures  cannot 
be  broken.    He  lived  in  other  mens'  houses,  and  his  body 


OUR  LORDS  NEW  TOMB.  239 

was  embalmed  at  the  expense  of  his  friends,  and  then  laid 
to  rest  in  another  man's  tomb.  (2.)  It  was  a  tomb  hewn 
out  of  the  rocli.  there  were  no  concealed  passages  in  the 
earth,  through  which  the  body  could  have  been  removed. 
(3.)  It  was  a  new  tomh—onQ  in  which  no  man  had  ever 
been  laid.  Joseph  belonged  to  a  provincial  town.  His 
father  was  not  buried  in  Jerusalem.  But  he,  having  risen 
to  distinction,  being  now  a  member  of  the  Sanhedrim, 
and  residing  in  Jerusalem,  has  prepared  himself  a  tomb. 
And  Providence  so  orders  all  this  that  no  suspicion  could 
arise  about  the  identity  of  our  Lord's  person  when  He 
arose  from  the  dead,  or  any  one  be  able  to  say  that  it  was 
some  other  person  who  had  risen  in  his  place,  or  that  he 
had  arisen  by  virtue  of  having  touched  the  bones  of  some 
old  prophet  who  had  been  buried  there  before  him,  after 
the  example  of  the  case  spoken  of  in  2  Kings  xiii.  21. 
(4.)  It  was  a  ncAV  tomb  in  a  garden — which,  among  the 
Jews,  was  often  the  case.  You  remember  our  Lord' s  last 
passion  of  the  bloody  sweat  began  in  a  garden — so  his 
humiliation  was  concluded  in  a  garden,  and  thence  He  rose 
to  glory.  The  sepulchre,  says  BurJcitt,  was  in  a  garden, 
to  expiate  Adam' s  sin  committed  in  a  garden  ;  as  by  the 
sin  of  the  first  Adam  we  were  driven  out  of  Paradise, 
the  garden  of  delights  and  heaven-like  pleasures  ;  so  by 
the  sufferings  of  the  second  Adam,  the  Lord  from  heaven, 
our  Mediator,  who  lay  buried  in  a  garden,  we  may 
hope  to  gain  a  joyful  entrance  into  the  Heavenly  Para- 
dise itself.  And  well  may  we  ask,  where  else  could  He 
have  been  buried  with  more  propriety  than  in  a  garden, 
who,  like  Aaron's  rod,  was  to  bud  forth  again  on  the 
third  day,  and  to  whose  death,  burial,  and  resurrection 
it  is  owing  that  our  bodies  shall  again,  like  reviving 
grass,  come  forth  from  the  earth  ?  So  Witsius.  (5.)  Our 
Lord's  tomb  was  near  the  place  of  the  crucifixion,  in  the 
immediate  neighborhood  of  the  place  of  the  punishment 


240  CHRIST   KOSE   THE   THIRD    DAY. 

of  convicted  persons,  so  that  he  did  indeed  make  his 
grave  with  the  wicked — that  is,  surrounded  by  them  and 
among  them,  though  not  of  them.  The  words,  therefore : 
'-^  He  rose  again  from  the  dead^^^  are  emphatic— they  do 
not  mean  that  He  had  risen  once  before,  and  that  this  was 
the  second  time  He  rose  from  the  dead.  They  are  intend- 
ed to  express  that  it  was  He  himself  who  rose — the  very 
same  soul  and  body — the  same  soul  that  he  committed  to 
God  when  He  gave  up  the  ghost  on  the  cross — entered 
again  into  the  very  same  body  that  had  hung  on  the  cross, 
and  had  been  embalmed  and  laid  in  Joseph's  new  tomb  ; 
that  his  reasonable  soul  and  true  body  were  actually 
united  again.  The  saints  who  rose  out  of  their  graves  at 
his  resurrection  received  new  bodies,  for  their  old  ones 
had  decayed ;  but  our  Lord's  body  did  not  see  corruption. 
His  body  was  truly  dead.  His  soul  was  altogether  and 
completely  out  of  his  body.  The  separation  between  his 
body  and  soul  was  as  complete  as  between  the  body  and 
soul  of  a  believer  now  at  death  ;  but  there  was  no  disso- 
lution of  his  body  in  the  sense  of  decay,  or  of  the  separa- 
tion of  its  constituent  elements.  His  body  was  saved 
from  the  first  or  faintest  approach  of  putrefaction.  For 
as  Christ  was  conceived  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  suffered 
only  in  so  far  as  He  was  our  Surety,  and  as  the  work  of 
atonement  was  completed  when  the  sacrifice  was  made, 
and  He  himself  said,  ''It  is  finished,  and  gave  up  the 
ghost ;' '  so  it  was  not  possible  for  His  body  to  be  holden 
in  the  grave  so  as  to  see  corruption.  There  was  none  of 
Adam's  sin  resting  on  it,  nor  was  the  guilt  of  any  actual 
transgression  found  in  all  His  life.  He  was  holy,  harm- 
less, the  innocent  Son  of  God.  The  honor  of  his  burial, 
after  his  death,  with  the  rich,  is  ascribed  by  the  Prophet 
to  his  immaculate  character  :  "  Because  he  had  done  no 
violence,  neither  was  any  deceit  in  his  mouth."  Isa.  liii.  9. 
There  were  causes  proper  and  natural  to  retard  the  work 


JONAH    A    TYPE    OF   CHRIST.  241 

of  corruption,  such  as  the  embalming  with  the  precious 
spices,  but  doubtless  as  far  as  necessary  it  was  the  effect 
of  miraculous  or  supernatural  power.  For  in  addition  to 
the  reason  just  intimated,  that  as  his  sufferings  were  now 
at  an  end — the  penalty  ceasing  with  his  death — and  as  he 
knew  no  sin,  neither  original  nor  actual ;  so  there  was 
nothing  in  His  body  that  corruption  could  seize  on.  And 
besides,  it  was  necessary  also  that  His  body  should  not 
see  corruption,  by  being  turned  into  dust,  so  that  its 
identity  might  be  so  clearly  seen  that  no  doubt  could  be 
raised  on  that  point. 

III.  The  third  particular  affirmed  is  that  He  rose  the 
third  day^  on  which  I  need  not  dwell  long.  In  Matt, 
xii.  40,  our  Lord  said  to  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  who 
demanded  of  Him  a  sign,  that  no  sign  should  be  given 
to  them  ^'but  the  sign  of  the  Prophet  Jonas;  For  as 
Jonas  was  three  days  and  three  nights  in  the  whale's 
belly ;  so  shall  the  Son  of  Man  be  three  days  and  three 
nights  in  the  heart  of  the  earth."  Here  it  is  to  be 
observed, 

1.  The  history  of  Jonas  was  then  known  to  the  Jews. 

2.  It  was  received  by  them  as  a  true  history.  Our 
Lord  appeals  to  it  as  both  genuine  and  authentic.     And, 

3.  The  Prophet  Jonas  was  in  this  matter  a  type  of 
our  Lord's  burial  and  resurrection.* 

Now  three  days  and  nights,  according  to  Hebrew 
reckoning,  means  any  part  of  two  days  having  two  nights 
and  one  whole  day  between  them.   This  mode  of  compu- 


*  See  Vlllth  Discourse. 
16 


242  CHRIST   EOSE   THE   THIRD   DAY. 

ting  time  prevails  still  in  the  East.  When  travelling  iu 
Bible  Lands,  I  was  frequently  put  in  quarantine  for 
three  days  and  nights,  as  at  Hebron  and  Smyrna — the 
meaning  of  which  was,  that  I  was  hurried  off  to  the 
quarantine  grounds  just  before  sunset,  kept  there  the 
following  night,  next  day,  and  the  following  night,  and 
then  next  morning  at  sunrise  discharged,  as  having 
fulfilled  my  quarantine  of  three  days  and  three  nights, 
not  forgetting  the  hacksMsTi.  That  this  is  the  true  view 
of  the  Jewish  mode  of  computing  time  is  seen  conclu- 
sively in  the  circumcision  of  a  child,  which  you  know 
was  to  be  on  the  eighth  day,  but  any  unexpired  portion 
of  the  day  of  the  child's  birth,  however  short,  was 
reckoned  as  one  of  the  entire  days,  and  circumcision  was 
performed  on  the  eighth  day,  that  is,  upon  the  day  week 
from  birth — ^the  eight  days  including  the  first  and  the 
last.  Bishop  Pearson  illustrates  the  Hebrew  usage  by 
the  third  day  ague,  which  is  so  called,  though  there  be 
but  one  day's  intermission  between  the  paroxysms  there- 
of, and  hence,  to  make  it  tertian,  the  first  and  third  days 
are  both  included  in  the  computation.  There  are  in- 
stances in  the  Bible  also  in  which  it  is  clearly  seen  that 
eight  days  mean  only  six  full  days,  counting  the  frag- 
ment of  the  day  at  the  beginning  of  the  reckoning  and  the 
fragment  of  the  day  at  its  close,  which,  being  held  as  two 
days,  make  the  eight.  In  our  Lord' s  resurrection  the  facts 
are  thus :  He  was  crucified  and  buried  on  the  day  of 
preparation  for  the  Jewish  Paschal  Sabbath,  which  is 
our  Friday.  His  body  was  laid  in  a  tomb  before  sunset 
on  Friday,  which  was  counted  by  the  Jews  as  one  day. 
He  remained  in  the  tomb  that  night  and  all  the  following 
day  and  night,  which  was  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  and 
answers  to  our  Saturday.  Then  early  the  next  day, 
which  was  the  first  day  of  the  Jewish  week,  and 
answers  to  our  Lord' s  day,  He  rose  again  from  the  dead. 


WHY   HE   EOSE   THE   THIRD  DAY.  243 

And  thus  were  fulfilled  the  Scriptures  and  His  own 
promise  kept.  The  third  day,  on  which  He  rose,  is  our 
Sabbath.  The  learned  Witsius  adds  here,  and  elaborates 
it  with  his  usual  eloquence,  that  our  Lord's  resurrection 
was  in  the  Spring  of  the  year,  which  he  considers  an 
emblem.     This  is  an  accommodation  I  do  not  fancy. 

If,  thet^,  it  is  still  asked.  Why  did  our  Lord  continue 
three  days,  and  but  three  days,  according  to  Jewish 
reckoning,  in  the  grave  'i    Our  answer  is, 

1.  So  much  depended  upon  His  resurrection,  that 
sufficient  space  between  His  death  and  resurrection  was 
given,  that  every  reasonable  and  proper  proof  might  be 
furnished  of  the  reality  of  His  death. 

2.  But  he  did  not  continue  under  the  power  of  death 
any  longer,  because  this  third  day  was  the  time  required 
by  the  types  and  our  Lord' s  own  prediction  for  him  to 
rise.  The  proof,  moreover,  of  His  resurrection  was  more 
easy  and  determinate  then  than  it  could  have  been  if  the 
time  of  rising  had  been  prolonged. 

And  now  from  this  brief  review  of  the  Article  from  a 
historic  point  of  view,  I  ask,  have  we  not  proofs  quite 
sufficient  to  demonstrate  the  truth  of  this  Article,  as  far 
as  the  nature  of  such  a  subject  admits  of  demonstration  ? 
First.  We  hold  that  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  is  an  Article 
of  Faith  resting  upon  testimony  purely  Mstorical.  Nor  is 
there  any  defect  in  the  evidence.  There  is  no  broken 
link  in  the  chain.  The  Scriptures  at  once  and  boldly 
remove  the  objection  that  such  a  thing  as  the  resurrection 
of  the  human  body  is  impossible,  by  ascribing  it  in  our 
Lord's  case,  and  in  every  case,  directly  to  the  power  of 
God.  St.  Paul  introduces  his  argument  about  the  resur- 
rection of  the  human  body  by  declaring  that  God  gives 


244  CHRIST   EOSE   THE   THIRD   DAY. 

to  every  seed  its  own  body.  So  also  is  the  resurrection 
of  the  dead.  There  is  no  antecedent  presumption  that 
can  make  the  resurrection  of  the  body  incredible.  For 
as  a  simple  act  of  Almighty  power,  the  resurrection,  to 
say  the  least  of  it,  is  in  no  way  more  marvellous  or  more  to 
be  cavilled  at  than  the  creation  of  man  at  first.  Besides, 
except  among  the  Sadducees,  the  Jews  cherished  a  tradi- 
tional faith  in  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  from  the 
dead  in  order  to  the  highest  happiness  of  the  future  state. 
It  is  clearly  demonstrated  in  our  Lord's  discourse  with 
the  Sadducees  on  this  subject  that  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead  was  an  Article  of  faith  in  the  Jewish  Church.  ''  But 
as  touching  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  have  ye  not 
read  that  which  was  spoken  unto  you  by  God,  saying, 
I  am  the  God  of  Abraham,  and  the  God  of  Isaac,  and  the 
God  of  Jacob  ?  God  is  not  the  God  of  the  dead,  but  of 
the  living." 

And  in  his  preaching  before  Agrippa,  you  remember 
Paul  appeals  boldly  to  the  king's  reason  on  the  subject : 
*'  Why  should  it  be  thought  a  thing  incredible  with  you 
that  God  should  raise  the  dead?"  And  again,  when 
preaching  at  Thessalonica,  in  the  Jewish  synagogue,  on 
the  Sabbath  days,  he  reasoned  with  the  people  out  of  the 
Scriptures,  opening  and  alleging  that  Christ  must  needs 
have  suffered  and  risen  again  from  the  dead  ;  and  that 
this  Jesus,  whom  he  preached  unto  them,  is  the  Christ, 
the  promised  Messiah.  And  then  on  Mars'  hill  he 
preached  to  the  Athenians,  reasoning  from  the  works 
of  creation,  and  the  admitted  sayings  of  their  own  poets, 
that  the  only  true  God  was  Jehovah,  the  Creator  of  all 
things,  and  that  He  was  to  be  worshipped,  and  not 
images  of  gold  and  silver  or  stone,  graven  by  art  and 
man's  device.  And  that  He  now  commandeth  all  men 
everywhere  to  repent.      Because  he  hath  appointed  a 


HOJiOEED   m   HIS    RESUREECTIOK".  245 

day  in  which  He  will  judge  the  world  in  righteousness 
by  that  man  whom  He  hath  ordained  ;  whereof  He  hath 
given  assurance  unto  all  men,  in  that  He  hath  raised  him 
from  the  dead.  Acts  xvii.  2,  3,  and  30,  31.  Here  the 
Apostle  plainly  sets  forth  that  the  raising  of  Jesus  from  the 
dead  is  the  most  persuasive  and  convincing  of  all  argu- 
ments for  the  truth  of  his  Messiahship  that  could  be  used. 
We  see  our  Lord's  humiliation  in  his  birth  and  the 
circumstances  of  his  life,  and  in  his  sufferings  and  death, 
and  Ave  see  the  favor  of  God  demonstrated  in  his  resur- 
rection. "For  though  He  was  crucified  out  of  weakness, 
yet  He  liveth  by  the  power  of  Grod."  His  resurrection 
was  a  miracle  of  the  greatest  power.  It  is  recorded  out 
of  Pliny  that  he  reckoned  two  things  impossible,  even 
to  God  himself  ;  namely,  to  endoio  mortals  with  eternity^ 
and  to  recall  the  dead  to  life.'^  And  yet  in  our  Lord's 
resurrection  we  have  both  these  impossibilities  realized, 
and  so  realized  that  Jesus  is  the  life  and  the  resurrection, 
and  by  his  Gospel  life  and  immortality  are  brought  to 
light.  In  raising  our  Saviour  to  life,  God  the  Father 
declared  his  special  love  to  Him,  his  approbation  of  His 
work  as  Mediator,  and  acceptance  of  it  as  completely 
meeting  all  his  demands.  It  is  in  this  sense  St.  Paul 
explains  the  Psalm  concerning  the  Messiah:  This  day 
have  I  begotten  thee.  That  is,  this  day  was  He  declared 
to  be  the  Son  of  God  by  the  resurrection  from  the  dead. 

Secondly.  Our  Lord  himself  distinctly  told  his  dis- 
ciples that  He  must  rise  again  the  third  day  after  his 
death.  He  made  repeated  declarations  of  this  kind,  and 
so  widely  was  the  fact  known  that  He  had  given  such 
assurance  to  his  friends,  that  his  enemies  did  all  in  their 


♦  Mortalcs  setornitate  donare  et  revocare  defunctos. 


246  CHRIST    EOSE   THE   THIRD    DAY. 

power  to  frustrate  any  collusory  attempt  on  the  part  of 
His  followers  to  give  the  semblance  of  verification  to  his 
words — to  the  fact  that  he  had  announced  in  the  early 
part  of  his  ministry,  in  figurative  language,  saying, 
''Destroy  this  temple,  and  in  three  days  I  will  raise  it 
lip ;"  but  the  Evangelist  adds,  "  This  he  spake  of 
the  temple  of  his  body."  And  if  his  friends  forgot  this, 
his  enemies  did  not.  They  made  it  a  matter  of  accusa- 
tion against  him  before  Caiaphas,  and  taunted  him  with  it 
as  He  hung  bleeding  on  the  cross,  while,  as  it  appears 
from  their  conduct  after  his  death,  they  knew  perfectly 
well  they  were  perverting  his  words,  and  accusing  him  of 
saying  what  he  had  never  meant.  Oh,  with  what  a  fiend- 
ish hypocrisy  did  they  come  to  the  Roman  governor, 
asking  for  a  guard  to  be  placed  over  the  sepulchre  ;  "for 
we  remember,"  said  they,  "that  that  deceiver  said,  while 
he  was  yet  alive.  After  three  days  I  will  rise  again. 
Command,  therefore,  that  the  sepulchre  be  made  sure 
until  the  third  day."  And  accordingly  a  guard  was  set, 
and  the  tomb  was  sealed. 

I  have  only  time  to  add,  that  we  do  not  believe  that 
our  Lord's  body  was  absorbed  into  his  Divinity,  or  that 
it  was  changed  into  a  spirit ;  but  that  it  remained  truly  a 
human  body ;  yet  it  was  divested  of  all  that  was  mortal 
or  corruptible — of  all  that  was  attached  to  it  in  conse- 
quence of  his  taking  our  place  .to  die  in  our  stead.  As 
He  lived  in  the  similitude  of  sinful  flesh — in  our  nature, 
when  He  lived — subject  to  our  earthly  accidents,  as 
hunger,  thirst,  sleep,  work,  pain,  and  death  ;  so  He  lives 
after  the  spirit,  that  is,  in  the  similitude  of  the  spiritual 
body,  when  He  was  taken  up  from  the  earth  in  the  body 
with  which  he  was  raised  from  the  dead — which  body*  is 

*  This  is  the  sense  of  a  passage  quoted  by  Browne,  p.  101,  from'  Theophylact. 


WE   SHALL    EISE   LIKE   CHRIST.  247 

incorruptible,  unchangeable,  and  is  the  model  after 
which  our  bodies  are  to  be  fashioned  in  the  resurrection. 
As  the  union  between  the  Divinity  and  the  humanity  of 
Christ  was  not  dissolved  by  death,  nor  by  his  burial,  so 
neither  is  the  union  between  believers  and  Christ  dis- 
solved by  death.  As  Christ' s  body  rested  in  hope  in  the 
grave,  so  the  believer  hath  hope  in  his  death.  How 
sweet  are  the  lines  of  a  Christian  poet,*  in  view  of  death, 
saying  : 

"  Hide  me  in  my  Saviour's  grave 

Till  thy  wrath  is  all  o'erpast — 
Summoned  to  my  heavenly  home, 

Then  I  shall  with  joy  reply, 
Answering  to  thy  call,  I  come, 

Gladly  get  me  up  and  die  ; 
Made,  and  bouglit  by  grace  divine, 
Thine  I  am,  forever  thine." 

Yes,  forever  thine,  for  Christ  both  died  and  rose  from  the 
dead  as  a  public  person,  the  Head  of  his  Church,  for  the 
justification  of  His  people,  their  '*  quickening  in  grace, 
support  against  enemies,  and  to  assure  them  of  their  res- 
urrection from  the  dead  at  the  last  day."  He  could  say, 
and  no  one  else  could  have  so  said :  /  am  the  resurrection 
and  the  life.  He  that  helieveth  in  me,  though  he  were 
dead,  yet  shall  he  live.  And  whosoever  liveth  and  he- 
lieveth  in  me,  shall  never  die.  Our  Lord' s  resurrection 
is  the  seal  and  pledge  and  model  of  our  resurrection. 
Now  is  Christ  risen  from  the  dead,  and  become  the  first 
fruits — which  are  a  pledge  of  a  full  and  glorious  harvest 
— the  first  fruits  of  them  that  slept.  For  as  Christ  is 
risen,  so  them  also  that  sleep  in  Jesus  will  God  bring 
with  Him.     The  Head  living  in  glory,  the  members  must 


*  Rev.  C.  Wesley. 


248  CHRIST   EOSE   THE   THIRD    DAY. 

be  there  also.  Because  I  live,  said  the  blessed  Saviour, 
ye  shall  live  also,  and  where  I  am,  there  shall  ye  be  also. 
Blessed  be  God,  our  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God,  "  and 
when  Christ,  who  is  our  life,  shall  appear,  then  shall  we 
also  appear  with  Him  in  glory."  ' '  Forever  blessed  be  the 
God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ, 
who  according  to  his  abundant  mercy  hath  begotten  us 
again  unto  a  lively  hope  by  the  resurrection  of  Christ 
from  the  dead  to  an  inheritance  incorruptible,  undefiled, 
reserved  in  heaven  for  those  who  are  kept  by  the  power 
of  God  through  faith  unto  salvation."     Amen. 


THIS   ARGUMENT   RESTATED.  249 


xir. 


THE    RESURRECTION    HISTORICALLY    DEMONSTRATED. 


••  For  I  delivered  unto  you  first  of  all —  *  *  And  that  He  was  buried,  and 
that  Ho  rose  again  the  third  day  according  to  the  Scriptures." — 1  CoR.  xr.  3,  4. 

In  the  Discourse  last  Sabbath  evening,  I  offered 
you,  First^  some  brief  remarks  on  tlie  importance  of  this 
Article  of  our  Creed — showing  that  it  was  the  key-stone, 
without  which  the  whole  arch  must  fall  to  the  ground. 
Secondly.  I  explained  the  history  of  the  Article  and  the 
reasons  for  adopting  its  phraseology.  Thirdly,  The  main 
particulars  of  the  Article  —  namely.  He  rose,  He  rose 
again,  and  He  rose  again  the  third  day,  were  explained. 
It  was  found  :  First.  That  the  Jewish  Church  believed  in  a 
Messiah  who  was  to  suffer  and  die,  and  to  rise  from  the 
dead.  Secondly.  It  was  also  found  that  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth suffered  and. died,  was  buried  and  rose  from  the 
dead,  precisely  as  the  promised  Messiah  of  the  Jewish 
Church  was  to  do  ;  and  our  conclusion — and  certainly  it 
seems  to  us  a  fair  and  an  inevitable  conclusion — is,  that 
Jesus  is  the  true  and  only  Messiah.  It  is  my  purpose 
now,  with  God's  blessing,  to  offer  you — 

I.  A  summary  of  the  evidence  on  which  we  believe 
this  Article— that  Christ  rose  from  the  dead  the  third  day 
according  to  the  Scriptures. 


250  HISTORY   PROVES    THE    RESURRECTION. 

II.  The  Effects  or  Benefits  resulting  from  His  resur- 
rection. 

I.  A  summary  of  the  evidence  in  behalf  of  the  truth 
of  our  Lord's  resurrection.  And  on  this  head  we  may 
remark,  that  our  Lord' s  resurrection  from  the  dead  is  not 
absurd  or  incredible  in  itself.  In  the  history  of  his  life 
and  death,  as  well  as  in  the  whole  history  of  the  Jewish 
Church  before  his  mysterious  Incarnation,  and  in  the 
history  and  existence  of  the  Christian  Church  at  this  very 
hour,  we  have  very  strong  presumptive  proof  of  the  truth 
of  his  resurrection  from  the  dead,  just  as  it  lies  before  us 
in  the  Evangelical  Memoirs,  and  in  the  Discourses  and 
Epistles  of  his  Apostles.  All  cavils  about  the  resurrec 
tion  of  Christ,  as  to  its  impossibility,  are  silenced  at  once 
by  resolving  it  into  the  power  of  Divinity.  St.  Paul 
boldly  meets  this  objection  in  regard  to  the  resurrection 
of  believers  by  his  argument  from  the  growth  of  plants 
from  seed.  He  declares,  you  remember,  that ' '  that  which 
thou  so  west  is  not  quickened,  except  it  die.  And  that 
which  thou  sowest,  thou  sowest  not  that  body  that  shall 
be,  but  bare  grain,  it  may  chance  of  wheat,  or  of  some 
other  grain  :  But  Grod  giveth  it  a  body  as  it  hath  pleased 
him,  and  to  every  seed  his  own  body.  So  also  is  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead."  God  giveth  to  every  one  his 
own  body.  Nor  is  there  any  antecedent  presumption 
why  the  raising  of  the  body  is  more  incredible  than  its 
original  creation.  The  same  Almighty  power  that  created 
man  at  first  out  of  the  dust  of  the  ground,  can  raise  his 
body  in  the  resurrection.  And  besides,  it  is  certainly  a 
presumptive  argument  of  no  small  force  to  look  at  the 
consequences.  For  such  is  the  relation  of  the  fact  of 
Christ's  resurrection  to  Christian  doctrines,  that  it  is  their 
only  support,  and  the  foundation  of  Christian  faith.  It 
is  the  key-stone  of  the  arch.     If  Christ  is  not  risen  from 


THIS    DOCTRINE  ESSENTIAL.  251 

the  dead,  **  Christianity  is  the  most  consummate  impos- 
ture "  that  the  world  has  ever  seen.  But  if  Christianity 
is  the  result  of  a  base  conspiracy,  how  can  we  account 
for  its  fruits  in  the  world  1  What  consistent,  intelligible 
account  does  any  one  give  of  the  ordinances,  institutions, 
and  effects  of  Christianity,  who  denies  the  resurrection 
of  Jesus  ?  The  Lord's  Bay,  the  existence  of  the  Church 
itself,  proves  the  truth  of  our  Lord's  resurrection.  This 
doctrine  must  be  true,  or  we  must  abandon  every  thing 
that  belongs  to  the  Gospel.  All  our  hope  of  salvation 
depends  on  the  truth  of  what  the  Apostles  preached,  and 
the  Creed  of  the  Church  has  always  declared,  that  Jesus 
Christ  rose  from  the  dead  the  third  day.  If  Christ  be  not 
risen,  our  preaching  is  indeed  foolishness,  and  your  faith 
is  vain  ;  ye  are  yet  in  your  sins,  and  we  are  all  false  wit- 
nesses. And  they  also  which  are  fallen  asleep  in  Christ 
are  all  perished.  But  now  is  Christ  risen  from  the  dead, 
and  ever  lives  and  reigns  as  an  Almighty  Saviour.  And 
'^if  thou  shalt  confess  with  thy  mouth  the  Lord  Jesus, 
and  shalt  believe  in  thine  heart  that  God  hath  raised  him 
from  the  dead,  thou  shalt  be  saved." 


II.  In  the  second  place,  we  do  not  rest  our  belief  on 
presumptive  proof  alone.  We  have  abounding  positive 
evidence  of  the  truth  of  this  great  fact^  which  is  as  strong 
as  the  nature  of  the  case  admits.  And  as  a  specimen  of 
this  kind  of  evidence,  may  I  ask  you  to  read,  Urst,  an 
account  of  our  Lord's  death  and  burial,  as  in  John 
XX.  38-42,  compared  with  what  the  other  Evangelists 
say  on  the  same  points — as  in  Matthew  xxvii.  57-66  ; 
Mark  xvi.  1-7.  And,  secondly^  the  narrative  of  our 
sacred  writers  concerning  his  resurrection,  especially  in 
Matthew  xxviii.  1-15.  Also  Luke  xxiii.  55,  6Q ;  xxiv. 
1-9.     John  xxi.  1-10. 


252  HISTORY    PROVES   THE   EESUERECTIOJST. 

Firsts  then,  may  I  not  ask  any  one  who  reads  this 
account  of  our  Lord' s  death  and  burial  and  resurrection  : 
Is  there  not  in  it  internal  evidence  that  it  is  a  simple, 
staightforward,  natural  account  of  just  what  eye-wit- 
nesses saw,  heard,  and  believed  \  Is  there  in  any  part  of 
these  records  any  particle  of  evidence  against  the  honesty 
of  the  writers?  Is  there,  in  regard  to  any  particular,  the 
slightest  or  smallest  sign  of  a  made-up  story  \  Do  not 
*' Fictions  usually  go  naked  of  circumstances?"  The 
events  described  in  them  are  said  to  have  happened 
"once  upon  a  time;"  but  the  narrators  do  not  tell 
us  when,  nor  where,  nor  how ;  or,  if  they  do  profess  to 
give  us  such  details,  it  is  done  in  such  a  way  that  we  can 
never  find  the  place  nor  identify  the  parties,  nor  get  a 
solid  foundation  for  the  things  stated  as  facts.  Whereas 
our  sacred  writers  have,  each  in  his  own  way,  given  a 
simple  and  direct  and  independent  narrative  of  the  resur- 
rection of  Jesus  from  the  dead.  No  one  of  them  ever 
seems  to  think  that  any  account  of  it  was  to  be  written,  or 
had  been  written,  different  from  his  own,  or  that  any  other 
view  could  be  taken  of  it  than  the  one  he  presents.  And 
hence,  although  at  first  there  may  seem  to  be  such  omis- 
sions or  additions  as  to  amount  to  discrepancies  in  their 
accounts,  yet  when  the  Evangelists  are  fairly  examined, 
there  is  no  contradiction  between  them,  and  that  which 
at  first  seemed  to  be  against  them,  turns  out,  in  fact,  in 
favor  of  their  intelligence  and  honesty  as  witnesses.  Each 
one  is  an  original,  independent  picture  from  his  own  point 
of  view.  And  both  the  fact  itself  of  our  Lord's  resur- 
rection, and  of  the  preaching  and  recording  it  as  a  fact, 
were  so  arranged  as  to  make  the  time  suitable,  and  in 
every  way  best  calculated  to  give  strength  to  the  truth  of 
the  facts  stated.  Our  Lord  was  long  enough  in  the  tomb 
to  prove  that  there  was  no  delusion  as  to  the  fact  of  his 
being  really  dead.    He  was  so  long  in  the  tomb  that  no 


THE   TBIE   OF   THE    RE3UERECTI0N.  253 

ordinary  or  natural  cause  could  by  any  possibility  bring 
him  forth  alive.  And  yet  his  resurrection  was  not  delayed 
until  he  was  forgotten.  He  rose  from  the  dead  while  yet 
his  features  were  fresh,  vivid  in  the  memories  of  friends 
and  foes — even  his  wounds  fresh — and  while  the  feelings 
of  both  friends  and  enemies  were  greatly  excited,  and  while 
the  whole  conversation  in  many  a  circle  and  through  many 
warm  discussions  must  have  still  occupied  the  time  and 
thoughts  of  the  Jewish  rulers  as  well  as  of  Jesus'  late 
followers — He  rose  while  both  friends  and  foes  were  keenly 
alive  to  the  scenes  of  his  death.  And  yet,  strange  as  it 
may  seem,  his  enemies  were  more  observant  of  what  He 
had  said  about  his  rising  from  the  dead  than  his  friends 
were.  It  is  strange  that  his  disciples  were  so  stupid  or 
forgetful  as  not  to  keep  in  mind  his  promise  that  He 
would  rise  the  third  day  from  the  dead.  Still,  it  was  so 
ordered  as  to  fulfil  the  Scriptures,  and  make  the  proofs  of 
the  fact  of  his  resurrection  as  strong  as  they  could  be. 

In  the  early  part  of  his  public  ministry,  our  Lord  had 
said,  speaking  of  his  body:  "Destroy  this  temple,  and 
in  three  days  I  will  raise  it  up  again."  You  remember 
the  Jews  perverted  his  meaning,  and  made  these  words 
the  ground  of  a  charge  against  him  before  Caiaphas  that 
he  was  the  enemy  of  the  Jews,  and  desired  to  destroy 
their  beautiful  temple,  and  overthrow  their  worship  and 
polity  ;  and  yet,  after  his  crucifixion,  they  understand 
the  words  literally,  and  do  every  thing  they  could  to 
prevent  their  coming  to  pass.  And  again,  our  Lord 
declared  no  sign  from  heaven  should  be  given  to  that 
generation,  in  regard  to  his  Messiahship,  except  that  of 
Jonah  the  Prophet,  for  ''as  Jonas  was  three  days  and 
nights  in  the  whale's  belly,  so  must  the  Son  of  Man  be 
three  days  and  nights  in  the  heart  of  the  earth."  And 
still  again,  immediately  after  our  Lord  had  instituted  the 


254  HISTORY   PROVES    THE   EESUREECTION. 

Holy  Supper,  He  said  unto  his  disciples:  ''All  ye  shall 
be  offended  because  of  me  this  night ;  for  it  is  written,  I 
will  smite  the  Shepherd,  and  the  sheep  of  the  flock  shall 
be  scattered  abroad.  But  after  I  am  risen  again,  I  will 
go  before  you  into  Galilee."     Matt.  xxyi.  31,  32. 

It  is  certainly  wonderful,  how  many  Scriptures  were 
fulfilled  in  our  Lord' s  sufferings  and  death,  and  that  the 
events,  moreover,  by  which  they  were  fulfilled  were  the 
free  acts  of  parties  wholly  unconscious  of  these  outstand- 
ing prophecies,  or  at  least  without  any  idea  or  wish  to 
bring  about  their  fulfilment  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  Little 
did  the  Jews  design,  by  arresting  Jesus  and  delivering 
him  to  Pilate — to  be  mocked,  to  be  condemned — his  gar- 
ments parted — to  be  crucified,  and  pierced,  and  then  to 
be  buried  just  as  he  was  buried,  to  prove  that  in  all  and 
each  and  every  one  of  these  particulars  God  was  ordering 
the  exact  fulfilment  of  the  prophecies  and  types  concern- 
ing the  promised  Messiah,  and  that  by  their  fulfilment 
in  Jesus,  it  was  to  be  demonstrated  that  He  was  the 
Messiah,  God' s  own  Son,  our  Redeemer. 

Again :  Secondly.  Our  records  clearly  authorize  us  to 
take  up  another  line  of  argument  in  support,  historically, 
of  the  truth  of  our  Lord's  resurrection,  namely,  from  the 
conduct  of  the  Jewish  rulers,  as  it  lies  in  the  history 
before  us.  If  they  had  designed  to  make  themselves 
unconscious  witnesses  to  the  truth  of  our  Lord' s  resur- 
rection, the  chief  priests  and  rulers  of  the  Jews  could 
not  have  done  better  than  they  did.  For  observe,  when 
they  heard  all  that  had  been  done  on  the  morning  of  the 
resurrection  at  the  tomb  of  Joseph  of  Arimathea,  they 
immediately  summoned  the  assembly,  and  took  counsel, 
and  resolved  to  bribe  the  soldiers  to  make  a  false  state- 
ment, saying,  ''  Say  ye.  His  disciples  came  by  night  and 


I 


THE   ROMAN    GUARD.  255 

stole  him  away  while  we  slept."  Read  here  the  account 
from  Matt,  xxviii.  11-15.  Perhaps  this  idle  story  is  not 
worthy  of  credit.  It  scarcely  deserves  serious  considera- 
tion ;  yet  you  will  not  fail  to  observe  the  sepulchre  is 
under  guard,  a  Roman  guard — xooffrwdta — which  usually 
consisted  of  sixty  soldiers.  How  many  were  detailed  for 
this  service  we  do  not  know,  but  the  circumstances 
justify  us  in  concluding  it  was  quite  a  strong  guard. 
Was  it,  then,  probable  that  all  such  a  guard  would  fall 
asleep  at  once,  and  that,  too,  when  death  was  the  penalty 
for  sleeping  on  guard  ?  Besides,  if  they  were  all  asleep, 
how  did  they  know  the  disciples  had  stolen  away  the 
body,  and  if  they  were  not  asleep,  why  did  they  not  make 
resistance,  and  prevent  the  body  being  removed  ?  And 
how  could  the  breaking  of  the  great  seal  and  the  removal 
of  the  body  have  been  effected  without  making  such  a 
noise  as  to  rouse  the  sleeping  guard  ?  Or,  how  was  it  to 
be  made  credible  that  a  few  unarmed  men  and  women 
could  have  overcome,  in  any  way,  a  Roman  guard,  and 
carry  away  the  body  ?  The  disciples  were  not  thinking 
of  any  such  a  thing.  They  had  forsaken  their  Lord  and 
fled,  and  were  so  broken  in  spirit  and  without  hope,  that 
they  were  still  in  an  upper  chamber,  '^  with  closed  doors  for 
fear  of  the  Jews."  And  besides,  it  is  marvellous  that  such 
a  handful  of  men  could  have  supposed  they  could  effec- 
tually conceal  the  stolen  body,  if  they  had  succeeded  in 
getting  possession  of  it.  If  they  had  stolen  it,  where  did 
they  hide  it  ?  Why  were  they  not  compelled  to  produce 
it  ?  Why  did  not  the  Sanhedrim  have  them  all  arrested  '\ 
Why  did  not  Pilate  order  the  arrest  of  the  guard  that 
had  so  failed  to  do  their  duty  ?  The  history,  it  is  true,  is 
not  full  on  all  these  points.  But  it  is  quite  fair  to  ask, 
why  was  not  the  missing  body  sought  for  ?  Why  was  it 
not  produced  ?  The  burial  linen  was  left  in  the  tomb — 
was  found  neatly  folded  up.      There  was  no  hurry  or 


256  HISTORY   PEOVES    THE   EESUREECTIOI!^. 

fright  in  tlie  coming  out  of  the  tomb.  No  human  eye  saw 
Jesus  rise  out  of  the  tomb,  but  the  evidence  that  He  had 
risen  is  positive. 

The  earthquake  and  the  angels  have  so  completely 
overcome  the  guard  that  they  neither  see  nor  do  any  thing 
until  some  time  has  elapsed  ;  then  some  of  them  go  into 
the  city  and  report,  and  the  Jewish  rulers  invent  this 
idle  tale  to  account  for  the  disappearance  of  Jesus'  body. 
If  there  was  any  shadow  of  truth  in  their  invention,  why 
did  not  Pilate  charge  the  disciples  with  the  offence  ?  Or 
why  did  they  not  fly  to  the  rocky  shores  of  the  Lake  of 
Galilee,  to  Herod's  jurisdiction  ?  Why  were  they  never 
taxed  with  this  charge  afterwards  ?  The  infatuation  and 
want  of  common  forethought  in  the  Jewish  council  when 
they  put  their  money  into  the  hands,  and  their  falsehoods 
into  the  mouths  of  the  Roman  soldiers,  really  become 
strong  evidences  against  themselves,  and  proofs  for  the 
truth  of  our  Lord's  resurrection. 

The  following  lines  from  an  old  Latin  poet  are  worthy 
of  being  preserved.  The  argument  may  be  better  than 
the  poetry,  but  still  it  is  not  without  merit ; 

"  Speak,  ruthless  keeper ;  answer,  guard  profane ; 
Your  words,  I'll  show,  are  wholly  false  and  vain. 
If  fast  asleep,  as  you  presume  to  say, 
Within  the  grave  immur'd,  our  Jesus  lay, 
Till  stolen  from  the  tomb  by  daring  hands, 
Unawed  by  terror  of  the  Roman  bands, 
Whose  are  these  clothes,  that  in  the  grave  remain, 
The  charge  of  which  two  angels  don't  disdain  ? 
Can  you  suppose  the  thief  would  long  delay, 
In  judging  which  might  seem  the  quicker  way — 
To  unbind  the  clothes,  and  strip  the  body  bare, 
Or  seize  the  sacred  corpse  without  such  care  ? 
If  thieves  make  haste,  and  not  one  moment  lose, 
What  man  of  sense  or  reason  can  refuse. 


THE    AXGEL    PREACHING.  257 

That,  in  its  linen  wrapt,  'tis  fully  proved, 
Christ's  stolen  body  must  have  been  removed  ?"* 

Thirdly.  Let  us  attend  to  tlie  declanitlon  of  the  angel 
to  the  women  at  the  sepulchre.  You  remember  these 
women  designed  to  make  our  Lord's  embalming  more 
perfect  than  they  had  done,  for  the  want  of  time  on  the 
evening  after  the  crucifixion.  They  came  to  the  sepul- 
chre early  in  the  morning,  prepared  with  spices.  And 
they  said  among  themselves  as  they  were  coming,  Who 
shall  roll  us  away  the  stone  and  open  the  door  of  the 
sepulchre  %  And  behold,  there  was  a  great  earthquake. 
(Read  here  Matt,  xxviii.  2-8,  &c.) 

They  did  not  know  of  the  Roman  guard  and  the  seal- 
ing of  the  great  stone  at  the  door  of  the  sepulchre. 
These  things  had  been  done  after  they  left,  and  at  the 
request  of  the  Jewish  rulers.  These  pious  women  had 
no  thought  that  Jesus  had  risen,  nor,  at  that  time,  was 
there  any  such  expectation  among  his  friends.  They 
came  prepared,  after  having  rested  over  their  Sabbath, 
according  to  the  commandment,  to  anoint  and  embalm 
his  dead  body  in  a  more  perfect  manner  than  they 
had  been  able  to  do  when  it  was  laid  in  the  tomb. 
You  remember  it  was  the  tomb  of  a  rich 'member  of 
the  Jewish  Sanhedrim  —  that  it  was  a  new  tomb,  in 
which  no  man  had  ever  been  laid — that  it  was  hewn 
out  of  the  solid  limestone  rock  on  the  hill-side  of  the 
garden — there  was  no  passage  into  it  or  out  of  it  except 
by  the  door,  which  was  closed  with  an  immense  hewn 
stone  that  rolled  into  the  opening  on  a  grooved  runner — 
a  heavy  hewn  stone  door  that  was  easily  rolled  into  its 
place  for  shutting  the  door,  because  for  that  purpose  the 


*  Quoted  from  Sedulius  in  Witsius,  vol  ii.  p.  177,  where  the  Latin  maybe  seen. 
17 


258  HISTORY   PROVES   THE   RESURRECTION. 

groove  was  on  an  inclined  plane,  the  descent  of  which 
aided  the  pushing  up  and  closing  the  door,  but  of  course 
to  roll  or  push  it  back  so  as  to  open  the  door  would 
require  greater  strength.  These  doors  were  so  arranged 
that  while  one  man  could  shut  them,  it  would  take  full 
half  a  dozen  men  to  open  them.  Nor  was  the  sealing  of 
the  stone  an  unheard  of  or  unusual  thing.  We  read  of 
the  same  thing  in  Daniel' s  life,  when  he  was  cast  into  the 
lion's  den  by  the  king  of  Persia.  In  such  cases  the  door 
was  sealed  either  by  closing  the  two  faces  together  and 
placing  the  wax  on  them,  or  by  sealing  the  ends  of  cords 
that  were  used  in  tying  the  stone  in  its  place,  as  the  ends 
of  cords  are  sealed  over  packages  by  our  express  com- 
panies, or  for  custom-house  purposes.  In  the  case  before 
us  there  was  less  trouble,  because  the  great  stone  was 
really  a  door  worked  in  grooves  and  could  therefore  be 
easily  sealed.  The  seal  used  was  no  doubt  Pilate's 
official  seal,  or  that  of  the  city  of  Jerusalem. 

Fourthly.  Observe  the  manner  of  our  Lord's  resur- 
rection. 

All  the  incidents  attending  the  rising  of  our  Lord  on 
the  third  morning  must  be  studied,  in  order  to  realize  the 
simplicity  and  the  awful  grandeur  of  the  scene.  1.  There 
was  a  great  earthquake. 

2.  A  glorious  retinue  of  angels  descended  and  went 
into  the  tomb,  and  sat  watching  where  the  body  of  Jesus 
had  lain. 

3.  Our  risen  Lord  left  his  sepulchre  vestments  in  the 
tomb:  "The  linen  clothes  and  the  napkin  wrapped 
together  in  a  place  by  Itself,"  intimating  that  henceforth 
He  should  have  no  need  of  funeral  garments  or  adorn- 
ments, because  He  rose    to  die   no  more,  but  to  put 


i 


THE   FOUR   MARYS.  259 

immortality  on  his  human  nature,  and  assure  his  people 
of  eternal  glory  with  him  in  his  heavenly  home. 

4.  The  angels  declared  to  the  women  that  Jesus  was 
risen  as  He  had  foretold  to  them,  and  was  going  into 
Galilee  to  meet  his  disciples,  as  He  had  promised  them. 
And  here  we  should  keep  in  mind  who  these  women  were. 
They  were  his  friends  ;  they  could  not  be  mistaken  as  to 
his  identity.  There  are  various  conjectures  and  in  some 
cases  conflicting  opinions  concerning  the  different  Marys 
spoken  of  in  the  Gospels,  and  in  some  instances  it  is  difii- 
cult  to  distinguish  them.  All  that  is  important,  however, 
we  can  know.  It  is  probable  they  were  all  together  at 
our  Lord's  funeral,  and  at  the  sepulchre  on  the  morning 
of  his  resurrection.  There  are  at  least  /our  Marys  in  the 
Gospels :  1.  Mary,  the  Blessed  Virgin,  who  was  the 
mother  of  our  Lord.  2.  Mary  Salome,  who  was  her 
sister,  and  wife  of  Cleophas.  3.  Mary  Magdalene,  that  is, 
Mary  of  Magdala.  And,  4.  Mary  sister  of  Martha  and 
Lazarus  of  Bethany.  Note  the  piety  as  well  as  courage 
of  these  women.  They  were  ardently  desirous  of  com- 
pleting their  pious  work  on  our  Lord's  dead  body,  but 
they  did  not  forget  the  duties  of  the  Sabbath.  They 
waited  till  the  Sabbath  was  past.  They  did  not  fulfil 
one  commandment  by  violating  another.  Nor  are  we 
without  some  useful  reflections  on  the  communication  of 
the  news  of  our  Lord's  resurrection  to  such  women  first 
of  all.  1.  Has  not  God  a  right  to  reveal  himself  to 
whom  He  pleases  ?  2.  Is  it  not  agreeable  to  his  method 
of  making  known  his  glory  to  employ  weak  and  feeble 
instruments  to  bring  about  great  results,  for  the  purpose 
of  showing  clearly  that  the  efficiency  and  the  glory  are 
to  be  ascribed  to  himself,  and  not  to  the  agent  employed  ? 
The  treasure  of  Gospel  grace  is  committed  to  earthen 
vessels,  that  the  excellency  of  the  power  may  be  of  God, 


260  HISTORY   PROVES   THE   RESUEEECTION. 

and  not  of  man.  3.  There  was  a  fitness  in  rewarding  these 
pious,  zealous,  and  holy  women  with  the  first  intelli- 
gence of  their  Lord' s  resurrection.  They  were  more  faith- 
ful, and  attached,  and  courageous  to  our  Lord  than  the 
Apostles  themselves  ;  therefore,  as  Burkitt  says,  our  Lord 
sent  them  as  Apostles  to  the  Apostles.  When  all  the  dis- 
ciples forsook  him  and  fled,  they  followed  Jesus  to  the 
cross,  and  followed  his  body  to  the  tomb,  and  are  the  first 
to  visit  it  after  the  Sabbath,  and  are  the  first  to  hear  of 
his  resurrection. 

Note  also  the  circumstances  of  the  resurrection. 
AYhen  our  Lord  died  there  was  an  earthquake,  and  the 
sun  was  veiled;  so  at  his  resurrection  there  is  another 
earthquake,  as  if  to  show  that  all  nature  sympathized 
with  its  Creator,  the  God-man,  in  his  great  work  of  re- 
deeming the  world.  And  an  angel  comes  from  heaven  to 
open  his  prison-door.  The  descent  of  such  an  ofiicer  from 
tlie  court  of  heaven  was  a  proof  that  the  Eternal  Throne 
was  now  begirt  with  the  bow  of  Peace.  Justice  was  satis- 
fied. The  prisoner  was  to  be  discharged.  And  besides,  it 
would  seem  fit  for  angels  to  assist  at  the  resurrection  of 
our  Lord.  An  angel  first  made  known  his  conception,  and 
declared  his  birth.  As  angels  had  been  his  companions 
and  comforters  in  the  temptation,  and  in  many  a  severe 
conflict  with  the  devil  and  the  powers  of  darkness,  and 
had  witnessed  his  agony  in  the  garden,  it  was  well  for 
angels  to  witness  his  resurrection.  He  could  indeed  have 
raised  himself,  and  have  rolled  away  the  great  stone,  and 
have  put  to  flight  the  Roman  guard,  or  have  restrained 
them  from  touching  him  as  He  walked  out  and  away. 
But  it  is  ever  agreeable  to  the  plan  of  Sovereign  Grace  to 
employ  creatures  as  agents,  both  men  and  angels,  and 
even  the  lower  creation,  when  the  Divine  glory  can  be 
better  presented  to  our  comprehension  by  so  doing.    And 


ALL    WAS   FOKETOLD.  261 

besides,  as  an  angel  had  foretold  his  conception,  first  pro- 
claimed his  advent,  and  now  rolled  away  the  stone,  and 
first  preached  his  resurrection,  and  bore  him  company  in 
his  ascension  to  heaven  ;  so  when  he  comes  to  judgment 
He  shall  be  revealed  from  heaven  with  his  mighty  angels. 
Note  also  how  emphatic  is  the  angeFs  declaration  to  the 
women.  He  is  not  here.  His  body  is  no  longer  where 
you  laid  it.  Death  has  lost  its  prey,  and  the  grave  has 
lost  her  guest.  Do  not  doubt.  Come,  see  the  place  lohere 
the  Lord  lay.  He  appealed  to  their  senses.  Come,  see 
for  yourselves.  His  body  is  not  here.  Here  are  the  grave- 
clothes,  but  He  is  indeed  risen,  as  He  said  He  would  do, 
and  He  goeth  before  his  disciples  into  Galilee  to  meet 
them  there,  as  He  promised  them.  For  we  must  remember 
that  it  is  constantly  repeated,  according  to  our  authorities, 
that  all  his  sufferings,  and  every  thing  about  his  death 
and  his  rising  the  third  day  from  the  dead — all  was  accord- 
ing to  the  Scriptures,  and  according  to  his  own  predic- 
tions and  promises  to  his  disciples.  Nor  can  I  help 
thinking  that  any  one  who  thoughtfully  reads  the  history 
of  our  Lord's  death  and  resurrection,  will  be  impressed 
with  the  fact  that  there  was  an  overruling  Providence 
directly  employed  in  making  the  evidences  of  the  reality 
of  his  death  so  plain  that  no  doubt  could  remain  on  that 
point ;  then  also  in  making  sure  of  the  sepulchre,  to  pre- 
vent our  Saviour's  resurrection,  or  even  the  semblance  of 
a  verification  of  his  words  about  his  rising  again  from  the 
dead.  Every  thing  the  Jewish  rulers  and  the  Eoman 
governor  did  to  prevent  our  Lord's  resurrection  only 
made  it  more  certain  and  palpable.  And  thus  were  his 
enemies  made  witnesses  for  the  truth.  The  providence 
of  God  so  overruled  the  circumstances  of  our  Lord's 
burial  as  to  avoid  the  possibility  of  deception.  Though 
his  friends  obtain  leave  to  embalm  and  bury  his  body 
after  the  manner  of  the  Jews,  yet  as  soon  as  this  is  done 


262  HISTOEY   PROVES   THE   RESURRECTIOl^. 

they  go  away  home  to  keep  the  Sabbath,  and  then  his 
enemies  obtain  a  guard  of  Roman  soldiers  to  act  as  senti- 
nels in  keeping  the  body.  His  friends,  His  enemies,  the 
centurion,  Pilate,  and  the  soldiers,  all  agree  in  declaring 
he  was  really  dead.  His  funeral  is  public,  and  distin- 
guished from  the  burial  of  the  malefactors  that  were  cru- 
cified with  him.  And  then,  after  He  was  buried  alone  by 
himself,  the  place  was  made  as  secure  as  possible,  and  put 
under  the  care  of  a  Roman  guard,  expressly  to  prevent 
his  body  from  being  removed ;  and  thus  the  precaution 
of  his  enemies  becomes  the  means  of  furnishing  the  most 
striking  proof  that  his  death  and  resurrection  were  awful 
and  yet  most  glorious  realities. 

The  point  in  hand  is  on  this  wise ;  Jesus  often  foretold 
his  death  and  resurrection.  He  was  really  dead.  Every 
precaution  was  taken  to  prevent  the  removal  of  His  body 
by  stealth.  Yet  on  the  third  day  the  body  is  missing, 
and  was  never  seen  again  as  a  dead  body.  Thus  far 
friends  and  foes  are  agreed.  Now  there  are  two  explana- 
tions offered  for  the  missing  of  the  body.  First.  The 
angels^  the  women,  and  our  Lord's  disciples  affirmed  that 
He  was  alive — that  He  had  risen  from  the  dead,  and  that 
his  resurrection  was  proof  that  He  was  the  Son  of  God, 
the  Messiah,  as  He  had  claimed  to  be.  Secondly.  The 
Jewish  rulers,  as  soon  as  they  hear  a  report  of  what  has 
occurred,  invent  the  tale  that  while  the  Roman  guard  was 
asleep  his  disciples  came  and  stole  away  his  body,  and 
hired  the  Roman  soldiers  to  adopt  and  affirm  this  story  as 
their  explanation  for  the  missing  of  the  body.  But  the 
story  of  the  Jewish  rulers  is  not  worthy  of  belief.  1.  For 
it  supposes  a  guard  of  sixty  Roman  soldiers  all  sound 
asleep  at  once — although  it  is  known  the  punishment  for 
sleeping  while  on  guard  was  death.  2.  The  disciples 
were    few,   unarmed,   and    in    every    way  despondent. 


THE  EVIDENCE  COMPLETE.  263 

3.  Nor  could  they  have  concealed  the  body,  if  they  had 
obtained  it.  And,  4.  Neither  the  Sanhedrim  nor  Pilate 
ever  charged  the  disciples  with  this  offence,  or  made  any 
effort  to  produce  the  body.  Here  is  the  empty  sepulchre, 
the  grave-clothes,  but  where  is  the  body  ? 

On  the  other  hand,  the  account  given  by  our  Evangel- 
ists is  the  true  one,  because  it  is  supported  by  testimony 
angelic,  human,  and  dimne — by  testimony  unimpeach- 
able by  reason,  common  sense,  or  legal  rules  of  evidence. 

1.  It  is  presumed  to  be  true,  because,  the  whole  case 
being  considered,  there  is  nothing  absurd  or  incredible  in 
the  history. 

2.  It  explains  how  it  happened  that  the  soldiers  did 
not  see  Jesus  when  He  rose.  They  had  been  prostrated 
by  an  earthquake,  and  were  so  affrighted  or  fainting 
they  could  not  see  him. 

3.  Then  the  angels  declare  Jesus  was  risen — the  women 
saw  Him,  and  the  disciples  affirmed  that  He  was  alive. 
Nor  could  they  be  deceived.  Nor  could  an  increase  of 
the  number  of  witnesses  add  any  thing  to  the  validity  of 
their  testimony.  Nor  is  it  possible  to  conceive  of  any 
motives  that  could  have  induced  them,  as  men  of  common 
sense,  to  adopt  as  true  what  they  knew  was  false.  They 
were  persecuted,  and  almost  all  of  them  put  to  death,  for 
believing  and  declaring  that  Jesus  was  risen  from  the 
dead,  and  was  alive,  and  was  both  Lord  and  Christ.  They 
gained  no  pleasure  of  a  worldly  nature  ;  no  wealth  or 
rank,  or  any  such  thing,  by  affirming  the  resurrection  of 
Jesus.  Rather,  they  endured  every  species  of  trial  and 
toil  on  land  and  sea,  going  everywhere  to  declare  that 
Jesus  was  the  Messiah,  and  proved  what  they  said  by 
showing  that  He  h^^^ti'Disa^  dead  according  to  the 


264  IIISTOEY   PROVES    THE   RESUEEECTIOI^r. 

Scriptures.    And  tliey  were  "believed  at  the  time  by  thou- 
sands in  Jerusalem  and  wherever  they  went  preaching. 

The  proof  of  our  Lord' s  resurrection,  then,  is  two-fold. 
It  rests  upon  sufficient  testimony,  and  it  is  confirmed  by 
miracles,  and  is  theologically  demonstrated  by  all  the 
arguments  and  reasons  for  the  truth  of  Christianity.  The 
witnesses  are  the  Jewish  priests  and  rulers,  the  heathen 
guard,  the  two  angels  at  the  se*pulchre,  and  the  numerous 
parties  to  whom  Jesus  showed  himself  alive  after  His  resur- 
rection, and  with  some  of  whom  He  remained  for  forty 
days,  giving  them  every  opportunity,  by  free,  familiar 
social  intercourse,  to  satisfy  themselves  as  to  his  identity. 
There  are  recorded  eleven  different  times,  when,  on  eleven 
different  occasions,  and  in  different  places,  our  Lord 
appeared  alive  after  his  resurrection  to  his  friends,  not 
always  the  same  friends,  but  to  parties  of  them  differently 
composed  every  time. 

These  parties  were  his  Apostles,  friends,  and  a  great 
multitude  of  above  five  hundred  brethren  at  once.  The 
number  of  such  witnesses  is  then  more  than  sufficient. 
And  they  were  qualified  by  their  intelligence  and  moral 
character  to  give  evidence.  There  is  not  a  syllable  known 
or  even  offered  as  to  their  characters,  on  which  their 
veracity  can  be  impeached  in  any  respectable  court  on 
earth.  They  were  in  such  a  situation  and  temper  as  to  be 
very  slow  in  believing  themselves.  They  were  incredu- 
lous to  a  fault ;  and  yet  their  unbelief  should  make  us 
more  ready  to  believe  what  they  reported.  Clearly,  as  it 
seems  to  us  now,  our  Lord  had  foretold  to  them  that  He 
would  rise  from  the  dead  ;  yet  so  blind  were  they  on  this 
subject,  and  so  little  were  they  expecting  Jesus  to  rise 
from  the  dead,  that  when  the  women  reported  what  the 
angel  had  told  them  at  the  sepulchre,  their  words 
seemed  to  the  disciples  as  idle  tales^  and  they  Relieved 


DOUBTIKG   THOMAS    CONVINCED.  265 

» 

them  not.  And  at  a  later  period;  and  after  they  had 
received  more  information  touching  the  matter,  and  had 
conversed  more  about  it,  and  when  Jesus  appeared  in 
their  midst,  then  they  were  terrified  as  if  they  had  seen  a 
spirit.  This  does  not  look  as  if  they  were  too  ready  to 
receive  the  report  of  his  resurrection  as  worthy  of  credit. 
And,  you  remember,  Thomas  was  so  determined  in  his 
unbelief,  that  "unless  he  saw  in  his  hands  the  prints  of 
the  nails,  and  put  his  linger  into  the  print  of  the  nails, 
and  thrust  his  hand  into  his  side,  he  would  not  believe." 
And  yet  our  Lord  was  pleased  to  indulge  him — to  take 
him  upon  his  own  conditions,  and  to  give  him  the 
demonstration  he  required. 

Nor  is  there  a  single  moral  blot  on  their  characters  by 
which  to  discredit  the  testimony  of  our  Lord' s  disciples. 
No  instance  of  dishonesty  or  any  want  of  integrity  was 
ever  brought  to  light  by  the  magistrates  or  ecclesiastical 
bodies  before  whom  they  were  examined  and  gave  their 
testimony.  They  were  called  fools  and  fanatics,  and 
reviled  as  the  oftscouring  of  the  world,  not  for  crimes 
or  vices  they  had  committed,  but  for  believing  the 
Gospel  of  the  Cross.  There  was  no  possibility  that  tliey 
could  have  been  deceived.  ''We  have  not,"  says  the 
Apostle  Peter,  "  followed  cunningly  devised  fables, 
when  we  made  known  unto  you  the  power  and  coming 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  but  were  eye-witnesses  of  His 
Majesty."  Nor  was  there  any  motive  for  them  to 
deceive  others.  There  were  no  worldly  gains  or  honors 
to  be  obtained  by  professing  to  believe  in  the  resurrec- 
tion of  One  who  had  been  crucified,  and  whose  Gospel 
promised  no  earthly  kingdom.  To  profess  the  faith  of 
Jesus'  followers,  then,  was  to  submit  to  persecution  of 
every  kind  from  both  Jews  and  Gentiles,  and  often  to 
endure  death  on  the  cross  or  in  the  amphitheatre,  or  in 


266  IIISTOEY   PROYES   THE   EESUREECTION. 

dungeons  or  on  the  block.  Nor  were  they  martyrs  for 
mere  opinions,  but  to  facts  which  as  eye-witnesses  they 
could  not  deny.  And  among  these  witnesses  we  should 
remember  that  even  Judas  is  to  be  numbered.  He 
declared,  throwing  down  the  cursed  money  which  he  had 
received  for  his  treacher}^,  "I  have  betrayed  innocent 
blood" — meaning,  that  Jesus  was  truly  what  He  said  He 
was,  the  Son  of  God  ;  and  that  all  He  said  of  himself  is 
true.  And  so  also  Nicodemus  and  Joseph  of  Arimathea, 
both  members  of  the  great  Hebrew  Senate,  men  of  culture, 
rank,  and  wealth.  They  honored  him  dead  more  than 
they  had  ever  had  courage  to  do  while  He  was  alive  ;  and 
rejoiced  no  doubt  in  His  resurrection.  And  then  Ave  must 
not  forget  the  testimony  of  that  fierce,  persecuting  Phari- 
see, Saul  of  Tarsus,  who,  as  Paul  the  Apostle,  exposed 
himself  to  all  sorts  of  dangers,  gave  up  all  his  expecta- 
tions of  worldly  honor  and  fame,  and  devoted  his  life 
to  preaching  Jesus  and  the  resurrection,  and  laid  his  head 
under  Caesar's  bloody  axe  as  a  martyr  to  the  faith. 

Again,  all  those  texts  of  Holy  Scripture  that  speak  of 
Christ's  ascension  and  of  His  coming  to  judge  the  world 
imply  the  truth  of  His  resurrection.  A  remarkable  inci- 
dent is  recorded  concerning  the  death  of  Stephen,  who, 
in  the  presence  of  his  enraged  enemies,  as  they  were  heap- 
ing stones  upon  him,  said :  Behold  I  see  the  Jteavens 
opened^  and  the  Son  of  Man — the  Son  of  Man — Jesus 
in  his  human  nature,  standing  on  the  right  hand  of  God, 
Remember,  in  coming  to  your  verdict,  that  Jesus  was 
dead — that  He  was  laid  in  the  tomb — that  it  was  sealed 
and  guarded.  Remember,  it  is  now  empty.  His  dead 
body  was  never  produced  after  it  was  laid  in  the  new 
tomb  of  Joseph  of  Arimathea.  Remember  the  angelic 
testimony — the  divine  demonstration  in  the  earthquake, 
and  in  the  resurrection  of  many  of  the  saints  that  slept. 


CUMULATIVE   EVIDENCE.  267 

Take  into  account  the  numher  and  character  of  the 
witnesses — the  places  where  they  gave  their  positive 
evidence  in  behalf  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus — and  that 
their  arguments  were  never  refuted — ho  other  explana- 
tion was  ever  offered  to  account  for  the  missing  body 
except  the  clumsy  falsehood  of  the  Jewish  rulers — that 
no  contradictory  testimony  was  ever  offered — no  cross, 
questioning  before  the  magistrates  ever  put  them  to  shame 
or  weakened  their  evidence — nor  did  any  torturing  or 
cruel  kind  of  death  ever  wring  from  them  any  recantation. 
Remember  too  the  time  when  they  gave  this  evidence.  It 
was  in  Jerusalem,  and  immediately  after  the  resurrection 
took  place ;  and  that  they  continued  ever  afterwards, 
wherever  they  went,  till  death  closed  their  labors,  to  give 
their  testimony  to  these  facts.  The  truth  of  our  Lord's 
resurrection  may  be  shown  from  miracles,  concerning 
which  we  may  truly  say :  If  we  receive  the  witness 
of  men — in  this  case  it  is  in  fact  the  witness  of  both 
angels  and  men — the  witness  of  God  is  greater.  If  then 
the  human  testimony,  the  historic  proof  of  the  truth 
of  our  Lord's  resurrection,  is  of  such  a  character  that  it 
cannot  be  impeached,  or  shown  to  be  unworthy  of  credit 
by  any  respectable  court  having  jurisdiction  of  historic 
verities,  how  shall  we  escape  from  the  seal  which  God 
himself  has  been  pleased  to  set  to  this  truth  ?  It  is  not 
needful  for  me  to  say  that  I  refer  to  the  descent  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  and  to  the  miracles 
wrought  by  the  Apostles  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus, 
as  well  as  to  all  the  miracles  of  Christ  himself  before  his 
death,  and  the  attestations  from  heaven  at  His  baptism, 
and  on  the  mount  of  transfiguration,  and  then  His  ascen- 
sion, and  in  a  word  the  success  of  His  Gospel  and  the 
present  existence  of  His  Church,  and  the  influence  of 
Christianity  upon  mankind,  past  and  present.  You 
remember  the  Apostles,  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  and 


268  HISTORY   PROVES   THE   RESURRECTIOIS'. 

afterwards,  boldly  declared  that  their  power  to  work 
miracles  and  to  preach  the  Gospel  was  from  the  Holy 
Ghost,  which  was  given  as  a  proof  that  Jesus  was 
Christ,  and  had  died  and  risen  from  the  dead,  as  they 
constantly  alleged.  "  With  great  power  gave  the  Apos- 
tles witness  of  the  resurrection  of  the  Lord  Jesus." 
Acts  iv.  33.  ''We  are,"  said  they,  "his  witnesses  of 
these  things,  and  so  is  also  the  Holy  Ghost,  whom  God 
hath  given  to  them  that  obey  Him."  Acts  v.  32.  It  is  to 
be  remembered  that  this  point  is  made  distinct  and  clear 
by  the  declaration,  that  ' '  the  Holy  Ghost  was  not  yet 
given,  because  that  Jesus  was  not  glorified."  And  our 
Lord  himself  promised  to  send  the  Holy  Ghost  as  a 
comforter  and  companion  to  his  disciples  after  his  ascen- 
sion. And  in  giving  his  last  command  to  go  into  all  the 
world  and  preach  the  Gospel,  it  is  said,  and  "  these  signs 
shall  follow  them  that  believe" — during  the  apostolic 
age — "  in  my  name  shall  they  cast  out  devils  ;  they  shall 
speak  with  new  tongues,  they  shall  take  up  serpents, 
and  if  they  drink  any  deadly  thing,  it  shall  not  hurt 
them."  These  signs  are  the  miracles  ordained  to  give 
proof  of  His  resurrection,  as  a  cardinal  doctrine  in  plant- 
ing the  churches  and  establishing  His  kingdom  in  the 
world.  This  argument  comprises  every  conversion  to 
Christianity  that  has  taken  place — every  poor  sinner  that 
has  been  pardoned  and  saved  by  the  Gospel  is  a  witness 
for  the  resurrection  of  our  Lord  Jesus. 

II.  But  I  must  hasten  through  the  second  and  last 
part  of  this  discourse  :  What  are  the  Benefits  or  Reasons 
for  ChrisV  s  resurrection  f  I  answer,  they  are  two-fold  : 
First,  as  to  Himself;  and  secondly^  as  to  His  people.  By 
his  rising  from  the  dead  He  declared  himself  to  be  the 
Son  of  God — proved  that  He  had  satisfied  Divine  Justice, 
vanquished  death  and  him  that  had  the  power  of  death, 


WHY    OUR   LORD    ROSE.  2^9 

that  is,  the  devil,  and  that  He  was  Lord  of  quick  and 
dead.  '*For  to  this  end  Christ  both  died,  and  rose,  and 
revived,  that  He  might  be  Lord  both,  of  the  dead  and 
living."     Kom.  xiv.  9. 

There  was  a  necessity,  then,  for  the  human  body  of 
our  Lord  to  be  raised  from  the  dead.  It  illustrated  the 
Dignity  of  his  person,  and  showed  his  enemies  and  his 
friends  that  He  who  suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate  was 
crucified,  dead  and  buried,  was  God's  well-beloved  Son, 
and  accepted  in  heaven  above  as  the  only  Mediator 
between  God  and  men. 

The  Reasons  for,  or  the  Necessity  of,  our  Lord's  rising 
from  the  dead  might  be  shown  in  this  way.  1.  To  fulfil 
the  divine  oracles  and  types  concerning  the  promised 
Messiah.  2.  Hereby  it  was  clearly  proved  that  He  was 
the  Son  of  God  in  the  sense  He  had  claimed  to  be,  and 
that  He  had  completed  the  work  He  came  to  do.  Christ, 
says  the  Apostle,  "was  raised  up  from  the  dead  by  the 
glory  of  the  Father,"  which  means  not  merely  to  the  glory 
of  the  Father,  or  for  the  Father' s  glory,  but  by  the  glory 
of  the  Father  displayed  in  His  Son,  owning  Him  as  His 
Son,  showing  that  Jesus  was  not  guilty  of  blasphemy  in 
claiming  to  be  the  Son  of  God.  His  resurrection  was  a 
perfect  demonstration  that  He  had  fully  satisfied  Divine 
Justice — paid  the  whole  debt  laid  to  his  account  for  us — 
and  had  conquered  death,  hell,  and  sin,  and  was  now 
Lord  and  Christ. 

If  our  Lord  had  continued  under  the  power  of  death, 
it  would  have  argued  that  the  satisfaction  He  had  ren- 
dered by  his  obedience  and  the  sacrifice  of  himself  was 
not  sufficient,  and  that  the  end  designed  by  him  in  his 
sufferings  and  death  had  not  been  attained.  But  as  the 
Justice  of  God  was  fully  satisfied,  it  was  not  possible  for 


270  HISTORY   PROVES   THE   RESURRECTION. 

our  Saviour  to  be  held  any  longer  as  a  prisoner.  His 
release  was  demanded  by  Justice,  as  well  as  to  accomplish 
the  promise  and  purposes  of  God  previously  revealed 
concerning  the  Messiah,  in  the  types  and  prophecies  of  the 
Old  Testament.  He  is  the  first-begotten  of  the  Dead,  and 
the  Prince  of  the  kings  of  the  earth.  He  alone  can  say : 
**  I  am  He  that  was  dead  and  am  alive  forever  more,  and 
have  the  keys  of  hell  and  of  death." 

"Hail,  purest  victim  Heaven  could  find, 

The  powers  of  hell  to  overthrow! 
Who  didst  the  chains  of  Death  destroy; 

Who  dost  the  prize  of  Life  bestow. 

"  Hail,  victor  Christ  I  Hail,  risen  King  I 

To  Thee  alono  belongs  the  crown ; 
Who  hast  the  heavenly  gates  unbarred, 

And  dragged  the  Prince  of  Darkness  down. 

"  0  Jesus  1  from  the  death  of  sin 

Keep  us,  we  pray ;  so  shalt  Thou  be 
The  everlasting  Paschal  joy 

Of  all  the  souls  new-born  in  Thee." — Breviary. 

Secoij^dly.  '^  What  doth  the  resurrection  of  Christ 
profit  us  ? 

^'  Ans.  First,  by  His  resurrection.  He  hath  overcome 
death  that  He  might  make  us  partakers  of  that  righteous- 
ness which  He  had  purchased  for  us  by  His  death ; 
secondly,  we  are  also  by  His  power  raised  up  to  a  new 
life  ;  and  lastly,  the  resurrection  of  Christ  is  a  sure  pledge 
of  our  blessed  resurrection." — Heidelberg  Catechism. 

He  rose  from  the  dead  as  ''  a  Public  Person,  the  Head 
of  His  Church,  for  the  justification  of  his  people,  their 
quickening  in  grace,  support  against  enemies,  and  to 
assure  them  of  their  resurrection  from  the  dead  at  the 
last  day."  [See  Ans,  to  62d  Question,  Larger  Catechism.'] 


JUSTIFED   AND    SANOTIFED.  271 

1.  Then  our  Justification. 

"He  was  delivered  for  our  offences,  and  was  raised 
again  for  our  justification."  "Justified  in  the  Spirit" — 
proving  that  Divine  Justice  was  satisfied,  and  conse- 
quently all  who  are  in  Christ  are  also  justified.  "Who 
then  shall  lay  anything  to  the  charge  of  God's  elect? 
It  is  God  thatjustifieth,  who  is  he  that  condemneth  ;  It  is 
Christ  that  died,  yea  rather  that  is  risen  again."  Since 
God  hath  acknowledged  that  His  Justice  is  satisfied  by 
the  resurrection  of  Christ — for  that  is  the  discharge  of  our 
Surety  from  prison — then  all  further  prosecution  is 
arrested. 

2.  Through  Christ's  resurrection  we  have  sanctifica- 
tion — "Ye  are  risen  with  him  through  the  faith  of  the 
operation  of  God,  who  hath  raised  him  from  the  dead." 
Believers  therefore  are  risen  with  Christ  as  well  as  justi- 
fied in  Him.  They  are  said  by  the  Apostle  to  be  planted 
together  with  him  in  the  likeness  of  his  resurrection, 
that,  as  Christ  was  raised  up  from  the  dead  by  the  glory 
of  the  Father,  even  so  they  also  should  walk  in  newness 
of  life.  This  is  what  Paul  means  by  knowing  the  power 
of  his  resurrection,  and  being  made  conformable  to  his 
death.  When  our  Lord  came  forth  from  the  grave.  He 
was  both  a  living  soul,  like  the  first  Adam,  and  He  was 
also  a  quickening  Spirit.  He  had  life  for  his  people  as 
well  as  for  himself.  Not  merely  that  He  was  to  ascend 
and  reign  in  glory,  but  that  He  might  live  by  His  Spirit 
in  believers.  As  the  Head,  He  sends  life  through  all  his 
members.  He  is  their  life.  As  we  are  by  nature  dead 
in  trespasses  and  in  sins,  so  we  must  be  quickened  and 
raised  by  His  Spirit  to  newness  of  life  ;  our  hearts  must 
be  created  anew,  and  our  affections  set  on  things  above. 
And  if  when  we  were  enemies,  we  were  reconciled  to  God 


272  HISTOEY   PROVES    THE   EESUliRECTIO:^r. 

by  the  death  of  his  Son ;  much  more,  being  reconciled, 
we  shall  be  saved  by  his  life.  That  is,  by  his  resur- 
rection and  life  as  Lord  and  Christ.  It  is  thus  that  we 
are  regenerated  unto  a  lively  hope  of  an  inheritance  uncor- 
ruptible and  undefiled,  reserved  in  the  heavens  for  us. 

3.  The  glorification  of  helieters  follows  their  justifica- 
tion and  sanctification.  This  Paul  declares  positively  in 
Kom.  viii.  30.  "Moreover,"  says  he,  "whom  He  did 
predestinate,  them  He  also  called,  and  whom  He  called ; 
them  He  also  justified  ;  .and  whom  He  justified,  them  He 
also  glorified^  Nor  could  it  be  otherwise,  as  He  is  the 
first-fruits  of  them  that  sleep  in  Him.  He  is  the  first- 
born brother  ;  believers  are  joint-heirs  with  Him.  If  by 
his  resurrection.  He  is  declared  God's  own  Son,  and 
receives  his  title  to  life  and  immortality,  then  are  his 
people  partakers  with  Him  of  the  same  inheritance.  He 
is  the  beginning,  the  first-born  from  the  dead,  among 
many  brethren.  Christ  the  first-fruits ;  afterwards, 
they  that  are  Christ's  at  his  coming.  As  Christ  is  the 
Head,  and  his  people  are  the  members,  they  cannot  be 
separated.  "  The  body  shall  follow  the  head."  Because 
I  live,  ye  shall  live  also  ;  and  where  I  am,  there  shall  ye 
be  also.  For  as  in  Adam  all  die,  even  so  in  Christ  shall 
all  his  people  be  made  alive.  If  the  spirit  of  him  that 
raised  up  Jesus  from  the  dead,  dwell  in  you,  He  that 
raised  up  Christ  from  the  dead,  shall  also  quicken  your 
mortal  bodies  by  his  Spirit  that  dwelleth  in  you.  His 
rising  from  the  dead  is  an  earnest  that  we  shall  rise  also. 
Our  Lord's  resurrection  demonstrates  the  validity  of  all 
his  promises,  and  the  truth  of  all  He  has  taught  concern- 
ing a  future  state.  This  is  an  illustration  in  his  own 
person  that  He  is  the  resurrection  and  the  life  ;  and  that 
His  Gospel  does  bring  life  and  immortality  to  light. 
Thus  Paul  says  before  Agrippa  and  Festus,  that  "having 


OUR  MODEL  FOR  GLORY.  273 

obtained  help  of  God,  I  continue  unto  this  day,  witness- 
ing both  to  small  and  great,  saying  none  other  things 
than  those  which  the  Prophets  and  Moses  did  say  should 
come :  that  Christ  should  suffer,  and  tliat  he  should  be 
the  first  that  should  rise  from  the  dead,  and  should  shew 
light  unto  the  people  and  to  the  Gentiles."  Acts  xxvi. 
22,  23. 

He  is,  therefore,  the  pledge  and  pattern  of  our  resur- 
rection. If  we  are  planted  together  with  him  in  the  like- 
ness of  his  death,  we  shall  be  also  planted  together  with 
him  in  the  likeness  of  his  resurrection.  As  we  have  borne 
the  image  of  the  earthy — that  is,  of  Adam — so  we  shall 
also  bear  the  image  of  the  heavenly — that  is,  of  Christ, 
knowing  that  He  who  raised  our  Lord  shall  raise  us  by 
His  power,  and  our  vile  bodies  shall  be  fashioned  like 
unto  His  own  glorious  body  ;  that  He  who  raised  the 
Lord  Jesus,  shall  also  raise  us  by  Jesus.  And  as  Christ 
rose  to  eternal  life,  heavenly,  holy,  and  blest,  so  shall  his 
people  live  with  him  in  glory,  where  sin  and  sorrow, 
pain  and  death,  can  never  again  reach  them.  And,  dear 
brethren,  as  Christ  rose  from  the  dead  by  the  glory  of 
the  Father,  so  ought  we  to  be  dead  to  sin,  but  alive  unto 
God,  and  to  walk  in  newness  of  life,  in  the  hope  of  the 
resurrection  unto  eternal  life  in  glory.     Amen. 

18 


274  CHEIST   ASCEXDED   INTO   HEAVEN. 


XIII 


CHRIST  ASCENDED  INTO  HEAVEN. 


"  And  it  came  to  pass,  while  he  blessed  thsra,  he  was  parted  from  them,  and 
carried  up  into  heaven." — Luke  xxiv.  51,  with  Mark  x\l  19,  and  Acts  i.  1-12. 

This  Article,  like  the  one  on  the  Eesurrection  of  Christ, 
is  a  simple  question  of  fact  supported  by  testimony  and 
by  theological  argumentation.  It  implies  the  truth  of 
Christianity,  and  Christianity  involves  its  truth  as  an 
essential  part  of  itself.  The  same  line  of  historic  evi- 
dence and  of  theological  reasoning  that  proves  the  truth 
of  our  Lord's  resurrection,  proves  also  his  Ascension. 
Still,  I  am  quite  willing  this  Article  should  rest  on  an 
independent  investigation,  and  on  its  own  evidence,  in 
the  light  of  this  nineteenth  century. 

In  the  early  ages  of  the  Church,  the  Ascension  and 
Assumption  of  Christ  meant  the  same  thing,  and,  like  the 
solemn  days  of  the  Nativity  and  the  Passion,  the  feast  of 
the  Ascension  was  kept  as  a  great  day.  Chrysostom  calls 
the  feast  of  the  Assumption  an  illustrious  and  refulgent 
day,  and  describes  our  Lord's  exaltation  as  the  grand 
proof  of  God's  reconciliation  to  sinners.  Our  Lord's 
emphatic  words  to  Mary,  after  his  resurrection,  *' Touch 
me  not,  for  I  am  not  yet  ascended  to  my  Father :  but  go 


Christ's  return  to  heaven.  275 

to  my  brethren,  and  say  unto  them,  I  ascend  nnto  my 
Father  and  your  Father,  and  to  my  God  and  your  God," 
are  especially  worthy  of  attention.  Here  our  risen  Sa- 
viour expressly  declares  that  He  would  ascend  to  his 
Father,  and  it  is  clearly  implied  that  something  of  pecu- 
liar importance  was  involved  in  his  ascension.  And  this 
inference  is  abundantly  borne  out  by  history.  It  is  in 
evidence  that  it  was  not  until  after  Jesus  was  glorified,  by 
ascending  into  heaven,  that  the  Holy  Spirit  was  given 
with  such  marvellous  and  unparalleled  power.  The  fes- 
tival of  the  ancient  Cappadocian  Christians  in  commemo- 
ration of  Christ' s  ascension,  was  not  an  unmeaning  one. 
This  festival  they  called  Episozomene^  because  they 
observed  it  as  a  proof  that  on  this  day  our  salvation  was 
perfected,  Jesus  Christ  having  finished  the  great  mis- 
sion He  came  to  fulfil  on  earth,  and  having  returned  to 
heaven.  In  our  Lord's  resurrection  from  the  dead,  we 
see  Him  receiving  from  the  High  Court  of  Heaven  and  the 
hand  of  Eternal  Justice  his  discharge  from  prison  in  full 
for  the  payment  of  the  debt  He  had  assumed  for  us ;  and 
in  his  Ascension,  we  see  the  Father  recalling  him,  as  an 
ambassador  who  has  fully  succeeded  in  accomplishing 
his  mission  in  a  foreign  country  is  called  home  to  his 
native  land  to  enjoy  the  honors  and  fruits  of  his  labors. 

The  ceremonies  of  Ascension  Day  in  Papal  churches 
are  somewhat  after  this  style  :  After  the  Gospel,  the  Pas- 
chal taper  is  put  out,  to  denote  that  on  this  day  our 
Saviour  left  the  earth  and  returned  to  heaven.  Flowers, 
images,  and  relics  are  then  heaped  upon  the  altar.  The 
priests  are  robed  in  white.  On  this  day  the  Pope  used 
to  curse  all  heretics,  and  pronounce  his  blessings  on  the 
faithful.  It  is  still  one  of  the  three  solemn  days  on  which 
his  Holiness  pronounces  blessings,  but  the  cursing  is 
now  confined  to  Holy  Thursday.     The  old  and  the  East- 


276  CHRIST    ASCEIS^DED    INTO    HEAVEN. 

ern  churches  make  a  much  greater  display  of  ceremony 
on  this  day  than  is  known  among  us.  At  one  time,  in 
many  of  the  ancient  churches,  it  was  usual  to  represent 
Christ's  Ascension  by  drawing  up  an  image  of  him  to 
the  roof  of  the  church  edifice,  and  then  cast  down  an 
image  of  Satan,  in  flames,  to  represent  his  falling  like 
lightning  from  heaven  before  our  Lord.  Nor  are  there 
wanting  historic  evidences  that  the  most  ridiculous 
pageantry  was  often  resorted  to  in  the  early  ages  of  the 
Church  in  celebrating  this  day.  Ceremonies  that  we 
regard  as  nothing  but  a  wicked  travesty — a  blasphemous 
commemoration  of  one  of  the  greatest  events  in  the  his- 
tory of  our  redemption.  For  ages,  also.  Christians  used 
to  travel  into  the  Holy  Land  to  adore  the  footprints  of 
Jesus'  feet  where  He  last  stood,  and  from  whence  He 
ascended  into  heaven,  just  as  they  do  now  to  kiss  the 
marble  tomb  that  represents  the  place  of  his  burial,  and 
to  witness  the  lights  that  are  kindled  on  Ascension  Day 
in  the  Church  of  the  Ascension  on  the  Mount  of  Olives, 
which  are  so  many  and  so  brilliant  that  it  looks  as  if  the 
whole  of  the  sacred  mount  was  on  fire.  Such  historic 
traditions  concerning  such  an  event  are  only  valuable, 
however,  as  presumptive  evidence  of  the  truth  of  the 
fact  commemorated.  It  is,  accordingly,  an  undisputed 
fact  that  Christians  have  always  contemplated  our  Lord's 
ascension  with  the  most  profound  satisfaction.  Poetry 
and  painting  have  vied  with  each  other  in  celebrating 
this  event  in  our  Lord' s  history  as  the  most  perfect  tri- 
umph of  His  humanity  over  every  adverse  power. 

The  only  variation  I  find  in  this  Article  :  ''He  ascend- 
ed into  heaven,  and  sitteth  on  the  right  hand  of  God  the 
Father  Almighty,"  is,  that  in  some  of  the  ancient  Creeds 
the  name  of  God  and  the  attribute  Almighty  are  omitted. 
In  such  copies  as  I  refer  to,  the  Article  reads  in  this  way : 


THE   MOUNT   OF    OLIVES.  27 T 

"He  ascended  into  heaven,  sitteth  at  the  right  hand  of 
the  Father."  The  sense  is  the  same.  The  only  part  of 
the  Article  I  design  to  consider  this  evening  is  the  first 
part :  "He  ascended  into  heaven. 


5> 


The  history  of  our  Lord's  ascension  is  given  in  Mark 
xvi.  19  ;  Luke  xxiv.  51,  and  in  Acts  i.  1-12.  In  this 
history  you  see, — 

I.  We  have  the  "place  from  which  He  ascended.  It  is 
nothing  to  my  purpose  to  prove  or  disprove  that  the 
church  or  mosque  on  the  Mount  of  Olives  marks  the 
exact  spot  from  which  our  Lord  ascended  ;  yet  I  have  so 
much  reverence  for  what  is  called  the  religio  loci^  that  I 
could  not  enter  that  church,  and  climb  to  its  summit,  and 
then  look  up  into  the  clouds  that  hung  over  the  whole 
region,  without  feeling  that  I  was  indeed  looking  on  the 
very  pathway  my  Saviour  had  used  when  He  ascended 
into  heaven.  It  will  not  be  understood,  however,  that  I 
receive  as  true  the  foolish  stories  found  in  the  legends  of 
saints,  and  the  traditions  of  the  Church  of  Kome,  about 
the  building  of  the  splendid  chapel  by  the  Empress 
Helena  on  the  place  whence  Christ  ascended  to  heaven — 
that  miracles  were  wrought  to  protect  the  dust  that  last 
received  the  prints  of  our  Lord's  sacred  feet — that  the 
marks  of  his  feet  are  still  there  to  be  seen — and  that  it 
was  found  impossible,  as  Jerome  reports,  to  cover  and 
arch  over  the  summit  of  the  building,  and  that  hence  it 
was  circular,  leaving  an  open  dome,  where  the  Lord's 
body  had  passed,  and  that  thus  the  passage-way  along 
which  our  Lord' s  body  went,  in  his  ascension  from  earth 
to  heaven,  still  continues  open.  It  is  of  no  consequence 
to  me,  as  a  traveller,  to  be  shown  the  marks  of  footsteps 
that  are  said  to  be  the  prints  of  our  Lord' s  foot,  either  on 
the  earth  or  on  the  rock,  nor  is  it  of  the  least  concern  to 


278  CHKIST   ASCENDED    INTO    HEAVES'. 

me  which  has  the  best  claims  to  the  oldest  foot-marks,  the 
monks  or  the  Mohammedans,  for  both  claim  the  original 
stone  on  which  our  Lord's  foot  last  rested  at  the  moment 
when  He  began  his  ascent ;  but  it  is  of  importance  to  me 
that  it  is  historically  true,  that  the  Empress  built  a  chapel 
on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  and  such  a  chapel  stands  there 
to  this  day  as  a  monument  of  the  truth  of  the  faith  of  the 
Church  on  this  subject,  nor  is  there  any  shadow  of  doubt 
but  this  Church  of  the  Ascension,  if  not  covering  the 
precise  spot,  still  overlooks  the  real  spot  and  the  whole 
surroundings  of  the  glorious  Ascension.*  And  I  can- 
didly admit  I  do  not  envy  any  one  who  is  such  a  skeptic 
that  he  is  not  in  sympathy  with  the  poet  who  says : 

"  I  cannot  look  above  and  see 

Yon  high-piled  pillowy  masa 
Of  evening  clouds,  so  swimmingly, 

In  gold  and  purple  pass, 
And  think  not,  Lord,  how  Thou  wast  seen 

On  Israel's  desert  way 
Before  them,  in  thy  shadowy  screen 

Pavilioned  all  the  day! 

"Or,  of  those  robes  of  gorgeous  hue 

Which  the  Redeemer  wore, 
When,  ravished  from  his  followers'  view, 

Aloft  his  flight  he  bore, 
When  lifted,  as  on  mighty  wing, 

He  curtained  his  ascent, 
And  wrapt  in  clouds,  went  triumphing 

Above  the  firmament. 

^  Is  it  a  trail  of  that  same  pall 
Of  many-colored  dyes, 
That  high  above,  o'ermantling  all, 
Hangs  midway  down  the  skies — 


*  This  subject  is  qiiite  fully  presented  by  Witsius  and  Lightfoot,  and  often 
ccnmentea  on  by  modern  travePers. 


NATURE   TEACHES    US  279 

Or  borders  of  those  sweeping  folds 

Which  shall  bo  all  unfurled 
About  the  Saviour,  when  He  holds 

His  judgment  on  the  world  ? 

**  For  in  like  manner  as  He  went, — 

My  soul,  hast  thou  forgot  ? — 
Shall  be  his  terrible  descent, 

When  man  expecteth  not  1 
Strength,  Son  of  Man,  against  that  hour, 

Be  to  our  spirits  given. 
When  Thou  shalt  come  again  with  power. 

Upon  the  clouds  of  heaven." — William  Croswell. 

There  may  be  a  thousand  lying  traditions  uttered  by 
the  guides  of  the  Holy  places,  but  when  I  tread  the  soil 
of  Olivet,  I  am  sure  I  tread  '^  where  His  blessings  were 
heard,  and  His  lessons  were  taught."  I  am  sure  that  I 
am  treading  on  the  place  whence  '*  His  humanity,  clothed 
in  the  brightness  of  God,"  ascended  into  heaven,  to  show 
me  the  way  and  teach  me  how  to  follow  Him.  I  know 
perfectly  well  that  on  these  hills,  which  I  see  around  the 
Holy  City,  Jesus  toiled  ;  from  these  still  gushing  fountains, 
I  know  He  drank  when  weary  and  thirsty.  And  the 
same  airs  are  blowing  on  me  **  which  breathed  on  his 
blessed  brow."  But,  my  brother,  complain  not,  if  with 
untravelled  eyes  you  are  seeking  to  follow  Jesus.  For 
even — 

"  If  my  feet  may  not  tread  where  He  stood. 
Nor  my  ears  hear  the  dashing  of  Galilee's  flood, 
Nor  my  eyes  see  the  Cross  which  He  bowed  Him  to  bear, 
Nor  my  knees  press  Gethsemane's  garden  of  prayer — 
Yet,  loved  of  Thy  Father,  Thy  Spirit  is  near 
To  the  meek  and  the  lowly  and  penitent  here : 
And  the  voice  of  Thy  love  is  the  same  even  now, 
As  at  Bethany's  tomb,  or  on  Olivet's  brow." — H.  H.  Millman. 

Witsius  thinks  Christ  chose  to  ascend  from  Olivet, 


280  CHRIST    ASCEKDED    IJ^TO   HEAVEN. 

(1.)  Because,  as  it  was  the  place  of  his  great  suffering  and 
bloody  sweat,  so  it  was  proper  to  exhibit  in  the  same 
place  his  glorious  ascent,  as  a  Conqueror,  to  heaven. 
(2.)  That  from  the  very  spot  where  He  had  struggled  with 
the  infernal  hosts,  He  might  ascend  to  the  highest  heavens 
with  trophies  of  their  complete  and  final  overthrow.  The 
scene  of  conflict  was  the  scene  of  victory. 

Note  the  two  statements  before  us:  "And  He  led 
them  out  as  far  as  to  Bethany."  Luke.  "And  they 
returned  to  Jerusalem  from  the  mount  called  Olivet," 
after  witnessing  his  ascension.  These  are  not  contradic- 
tory. You  know  the  Mount  of  Olives  and  Bethany  are 
places  very  dear  to  our  Lord.  They  lie  on  the  same  side 
of  Jerusalem.  The  name  Bethany  was  applied  both  to 
the  city  and  district  in  which  it  was  situate.  And  in 
going  to  Bethany,  the  way  was  by  or  over  the  Mount  of 
Olives.  "He  led  them  out  as  far  as  to  Bethany,"  there- 
fore means,  He  led  them  along  the  usual  road  towards 
Bethany,  which  winds  round  the  Mount  of  Olives,  until 
he  came  to  the  spot  where  the  district^  that  is,  the  town- 
ship of  Bethany  began,  and  in  which  was  the  city  of 
Bethany,  and  which  was  also  in  view  from  the  spot  where 
He  blessed  them,  and  from  which  he  ascended.  And 
hence  the  statement,  that  after  the  ascension  the  disciples 
returned  to  Jerusalem  from  the  mount  called  Olivet,  is 
strictly  correct.  It  is  a  simple  and  natural  description  of 
the  journey  and  of  the  place.  He  ascended  not  from  the 
town  of  Bethany^  but  from  the  district  of  Bethany^  lying 
on  the  side  of  Olivet  next  to  and  overlooking  the  town 
of  Bethany. 

II.  We  have  the  time.  ' '  Until  the  day  in  which  He  was 
taken  up,"  being  seen  of  his  Apostles  and  friends /or 
forty  days  after  his  resurrection.  During  these  forty 
days  our  Lord  had  appeared  many  times  to  his  disciples, 


WHY    AFTER    "  FORTY   DAYS."  281 

and  spoke  many  things  to  them  pertaining  to  the  kingdom 
of  God.  Perhaps  it  was  for  the  purpose  of  giving  them 
such  instruction,  extending  through  such  a  length  of  time, 
that  they  might  have  more  clear  and.  distinct  views,  and 
be  the  better  able  to  understand  him,  and  to  satisfy  them- 
selves of  the  reality  of  all  they  were  called  to  testify 
about,  that  the  interval  of  forty  days  was  allowed  to  pass 
before  He  ascended.  I  do  not  know  why  ^usi  forty  days, 
and  no  more  and  no  less,  were  the  determinate  number. 
You  know,  however,  that  this  is  a  favorite  Bible  num- 
ber. Moses  was  just  so  long  on  Mount  Sinai.  Elijah 
travelled  forty  days  in  the  strength  of  the  food  he  received 
under  the  juniper-tree  in  the  wilderness  of  Beersheba, 
until  he  reached  Horeb,  where  Jehovah' s  still  small  voice 
had  more  effect  upon  him  than  the  earthquake.  And 
Jesus  fasted  forty  days  in  the  wilderness.  And  so  also  it 
is  to  be  noted,  as  parallel,  that  it  was  forty  days  from  his 
birth  to  his  presentation  in  the  temple.  Let  us  now 
attend  to 

III.  The  FACT  ITSELF.  '' He  was  parted  from  them, 
and  carried  up  into  heaven. "  ' '  And  when  He  had  spoken 
these  things,  while  they  beheld.  He  was  taken  up  ;  and  a 
cloud  received  him  out  of  their  sight.  And  while  they 
looked  steadfastly  toward  heaven  as  He  went  up,  behold, 
two  men  [that  is,  angels],  stood  by  them  in  white  apparel, 
which  also  said.  Ye  men  of  Galilee,  why  stand  ye  gazing 
up  into  heaven  ?  This  same  Jesus  which  is  taken  up  from 
you  into  heaven,  shall  so  come  in  like  manner  as  ye  have 
seen  him  go  into  heaven." 

You  may  remember  that  an  Apostle  says,  "Now,  he 
that  descended  is  the  same  that  ascended."  This  is  dif- 
ferent from  the  case  of  Moses  in  the  mount ;  he  had  to 
ascend  before  he  could  descend.  But  Christ  descended 
first,  and  took  upon  himself  in  his  descent  our  nature, 


282  CHRIST   ASCENDED   INTO    HEAVEN. 

and  tlien  in  it  He  ascended.  It  is  He,  the  God -man,  the 
person  Jesus  Christ,  who  ascended  into  heaven.  Our 
Lord's  ascension  is,  therefore,  the  second  step  of  his  ex- 
altation. By  his  ascension  is  meant  that  on  the  fortieth 
day  after  his  resurrection,  and  in  the  full  view  of  his  dis- 
ciples, in  clear  daylight,  He  went  up  in  his  body  from  the 
earth  into  heaven — ascending  from  the  side  of  the  Mount 
of  Olives  overlooking  Bethany,  and  that  He  ascended 
truly  into  heaven,  passing  through  air  and  visible  clouds 
into  the  highest  heaven,  and  that  his  human  body  is  there 
to  remain  in  glory  till  He  comes  to  judge  the  world. 

The  FACT  ITSELF  of  our  Lord's  ascension  is  as  clearly 
affirmed  as  terms  can  do  it.  It  was  not  a  vision,  nor  a 
mere  appearance,  but  a  reality.  Christ  Jesus  was  visibly 
elevated  to  heaven.  It  was  the  perfect  man  Christ  Jesus 
that  ascended.  The  ascension,  however,  is  predicable, 
strictly  speaking,  only  of  his  humanity.  The  Godhead  is 
omnipresent,  but  the  human  nature  of  Jesus  Christ  is  not 
ubiquitous."*  It  was  the  same  body  that  "  was  dead  and 
buried,"  that  arose  and  ascended.  ''This  man,  after  he 
had  offered  one  sacrifice  for  sins,  forever  sat  down  at  the 
right  hand  of  God,"  Heb.  x.  12.  Many  texts  of  Scrip- 
ture might  be  quoted  as  to  the  fact  that  it  was  his  human 
body  the  Apostles  saw  ascend,  but  I  give  you  here  only 
one,  and  that  one  especially  for  the  purpose  of  showing 
that  his  body  glorified  is  the  pattern  and  earnest  of  our 
own  glorification.  Paul  expressly  tells  us  that  as  in  this 
life,  while  living  in  this  world,  we  are  after  the  likeness 
of  the  first  Adam,  so  in  the  resurrection  we  shall  have  the 


*  The  doctrine  of  transubstantiation  or  of  consubstantiation  cannot  be  true. 
For  Christ's  body  remains  in  heaven.  It  is  only  his  Divinity,  his  Spirit,  that  is 
everywhere  with  his  people.  See  this  point  well  but  briefly  argued  in  Bethune, 
vol.  i  p.  459. 


PEOOFS   OF   HIS   ASCEIS^SION.  283 

image  of  Christ  the  second  Adam,  the  Lord  from  heaven 
our  Redeemer.  "For  our  conversation  is  in  heaven; 
from  whence  also  we  look  for  the  Saviour,  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ :  Who  shall  change  our  vile  body,  that  it  may  be 
fashioned  like  unto  His  glorious  body,  according  to  the 
working  whereby  He  is  able  even  to  subdue  all  things 
unto  himself."    Phil.  iii.  20,  21. 

Here  it  is  clearly  taught :  (1.)  That  our  lives  and  con- 
duct are  to  be  heaven- ward.  For  (2.)  Our  Saviour  is  in 
heaven,  and  that  His  body  is  glorified  in  heaven.  And  (3.) 
He  is  coming  again  to  perfect  his  work  of  redemption  in 
us,  by  changing  our  vile  bodies  into  the  likeness  of  his 
glorious  body.  And  this  He  will  do  by  his  mighty 
power  in  subduing  and  overcoming  all  things  for  his 
own  glory. 

The  proofs  of  our  Lord' s  ascension  need  not  be  dwelt 
upon.  The  method  used  to  prove  upon  evidence  His 
resurrection  might  be  repeated  in  support  of  the  fact  of 
His  ascension.  Thus,  we  could  show  from  the  types  and 
prophetic  oracles  of  the  old  Jewish  Church  that  the 
promised  Messiah  was  to  ascend  into  heaven  ;  and  then 
we  can  prove  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  did  really  and  truly 
ascend  into  heaven,  and  therefore  we  believe  this  Article 
to  be  true,  and  that  Jesus  is  the  true  and  only  Messiah. 

The  high  priest,  under  the  law,  is  understood  to  have 
been  a  type  of  the  Messiah,  and  his  going  into  the  Holy 
of  Holies  once  a  year  is  considered  typically  to  represent 
Christ  ascending  into  heaven.  Such  an  application  of  this 
type  to  the  Messiah  has  been  generally  admitted  even  by 
Jewish  commentators.  And  then,  prophetically,  we  might 
refer  to  passages  out  of  the  Psalms,  especially  from  the 
sixty-eighth,  which  Paul  expressly  quotes,  and  applies 
not  to  Joshua,  David,  or  any  of  the  Prophets,  but  to 


284  CHRIST   ASCENDED    INTO   HEAVEN. 

Christ :  '*  Thou  hast  ascended  up  on  high  ;  Thou  hast  led 
captivity  captive,  Thou  hast  received  gifts  for  men."  And 
so,  on  the  other  hand,  we  have  the  authority  of  the  New 
Testament  for  believing  that  Jesus  Christ  did  really  and 
truly  ascend  into  heaven,  just  as  the  Jewish  Church 
believed  the  Messiah  was  to  ascend.  There  is  no  more 
figure  of  speech  nor  metaphor  used  in  describing  his 
ascension  than  in  describing  his  birth — which  is  in  no 
sense  metaphorical,  but  literal  and  true.  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth was  literally  and  truly  "conceived  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,"  and  took  unto  himself  of  the  Virgin  Mary  "a 
true  body,"  with  "a  rational  soul,"  and  literally  and 
truly  did  He  die  and  rise  again,  and  ascend  into  heaven. 
All  this  we  do  most  firmly  believe,  1.  Because  the  dis- 
ciples saw  him  ascend.  2.  Two  angels  declared  that  he 
had  thus  ascended.  3.  Jesus  said  He  would  ascend.  4. 
Stephen  and  Paul,  and  John  the  Evangelist,  saw  him  in 
his  ascended  state.  5.  His  ascension  was  demonstrated 
by  the  descent  of  the  Holy  .Spirit ;  by  the  miracles  of  the 
Apostles,  the  fruits  of  their  labors,  and  the  spread  of  the 
Gospel  to  this  day.  Every  thing  that  proves  the  reality 
of  the  Christian  religion  is  an  evidence  of  the  truth  of 
Christ's  ascension.  And  6.  The  destruction  of  Jerusalem, 
the  end  of  the  Hebrew  polity,  the  ceasing  of  Hebrew 
sacrifices  in  the  overthrow  of  the  temple,  are  standing 
proofs  that  He  was  the  Son  of  God  ;  and  that  as  He  said. 
He  would  ascend  again  to  His  Father,  so  He  undoubtedly 
fulfilled  his  own  words,  and  thus  is  it  proved  that  He  is 
the  true  and  only  Messiah,  the  Saviour  of  sinners. 

lY.  In  the  fourth  place,  what  are  ice  to  believe  as  to 
the  nature  and  properties  of  the  body  in  which  Christ 
appeared  after  his  resurrection^  and  which  He  took  with 
him  when  He  ascended  into  heaven  f    The  best  answer 


HIS   HUMAN    BODY    ASCENDED.  285 

we  can  give  to  this  question  is  found  in  the  answers  of 
the  Larger  Catechism  to  the  52d  and  53d  questions,  and 
in  the  fourth  Article  of  the  Church  of  England,  all  of 
which  let  us  read. 

Q.  52.  How  was  Christ  exalted  in  Ms  resurrection  ? 

A.  Christ  was  exalted  in  his  resurrection,  in  that,  not 
having  seen  corruption  in  death,  of  which  it  was  not  pos- 
sible for  him  to  be  held,  and  having  the  very  same  body- 
in  which  he  suffered,  with  the  essential  properties  thereof, 
but  without  mortality  and  other  common  infirmities 
belonging  to  this  life,  really  united  to  his  soul,  he  rose 
again  from  the  dead  the  third  day  by  his  power,  whereby 
he  declared  himself  to  be  the  Son  of  God,  to  have  satis- 
fied Divine  Justice,  to  have  vanquished  death,  and  him 
that  had  the  power  of  it,  and  to  be  Lord  of  quick  and 
dead :  all  which  He  did  as  a  public  person,  the  Head  of 
his  Church,  for  their  justification,  quickening  in  grace, 
support  against  enemies,  and  to  assure  them  of  their 
resurrection  from  the  dead  at  the  last  day. 

Q.  53.  How  was  Christ  exalted  in  his  ascension  f 

A.  Christ  was  exalted  in  his  ascension,  in  that  having, 
after  his  resurrection,  often  appeared  unto,  and  conversed 
with  his  Apostles,  speaking  to  them  of  the -things  pertain- 
ing to  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  giving  them  commission 
to  preach  the  Gospel  to  all  nations  ;  forty  days  after  his 
resurrection,  he,  in  our  nature,  and  as  our  head,  triumph- 
ing over  enemies,  visibly  went  up  into  the  highest 
heavens,  there  to  receive  gifts  for  men,  to  raise  up  our 
affections  thither,  and  to  prepare  a  place  for  us,  where 
himself  is,  and  shall  continue  till  his  second  coming  at  the 
end  of  the  world. 

The  Article  of  the  Church  of  England  says  :  *'  Christ 


286  CHRIST   ASCENDED   INTO    HEAVEN. 

did  truly  rise  again  from  death,  and  took  again  his 
"body,  with  flesh,  bones,  and  all  things  appertaining 
to  the  perfection  of  man's  nature,  wherewith  He 
ascended  into  heaven."  Some  have  objected  to  these 
statements  because  it  is  said  they  are  contradicted  by  the 
Apostle's  denominating  the  body  of  the  believer,  in  the 
resurrection,  ^' a  spiritual  hody.^''  But  the  objection  is 
not  well  put.  For  we  do  not  exactly  or  fully  know  what  a 
spiritual  body  is.  ''A  spiritual  body,"  however,  is  clearly 
material,  and  is  called  "spiritual"  only  because  it  is 
refined  from  all  earthly  elements.  Our  Lord's  body  after 
his  resurrection  was  the  same  body  that  was  buried,  but 
without  any  of  the  liabilities  or  infirmities  of  this  life — 
such  as  belong  to  mortal  bodies.  Moreover,  according  to 
St.  Paul' s  reasoning,  it  was  essentially  the  same  body — 
or  there  was  no  resurrection  at  all.  That  which  is  sown 
is  altered  in  shape,  and  yet  that  which  is  sown  is  the  same 
for  substance  that  is  raised.  In  a  modified  sense,  the 
body  of  Christ  as  He  rose  from  the  dead  was  material,  and 
so  continues  to  be.  It  was  endowed  with  the  same  senses 
that  it  had  before  his  death,  and  these  senses  were  exer- 
cised in  the  same  manner,  although  doubtless  capable, 
humanly  speaking,  of  a  much  greater  degree  of  action 
and  of  higher  perfection.  The  Fathers  of  the  Church 
understood  the  Scriptures  on  this  point  just  as  we  do. 
Ignatius  says,  Christ  was  in  the  flesh,  that  is,  in  perfect 
humanity,  after  Ids  resurrection.  And  Irenseus  says, 
Jesus  Christ  was  received  into  heaven  after  his  resurrec- 
tion in  his  flesh.  And  another  says:  ''  If  any  one  shall 
not  acknowledge  that  Christ  is  set  down  at  the  right  hand 
of  the  Father,  in  the  same  flesh  which  He  took  here,  let 
him  be  anathema."  And  so  another  :  *'  He  ascended  into 
heaven,  not  divesting  himself  of  his  holy  body,  but 
uniting  it  to  a  spiritual  one,"  which  is  explained  by 
Augustine  by  saying,  that  all  the  difficulty  about  our 


HOW    OUR    LORD   ASCENDED.  287 

Lord' s  taking  his  human,  that  is,  his  earthly  body,  into 
heaven,  is  removed  by  understanding  what  is  said  in 
Scripture  :  "  It  is  sown  a  natural  body,  it  is  raised  a  spir- 
itual body." 

As  the  heresies  in  primitive  times  denied  the  reality 
of  our  Lord's  human  nature,  and  taught  that  he  had  a 
body  only  in  appearance,  and  that  when  His  Divinity 
left  his  body,  it  dissolved  into  air ;  or,  as  some  of  them 
said,  his  body  ascended  no  farther  than  the  sun,  in  which 
it  was  deposited  ;  so  it  was  proper  and  necessary  for  the 
Faith  of  the  Church  to  be  expressed  in  such  terms  as 
would  clearly  teach  that  His  body  was  a  true  and  proper 
human  body  ;  and  that  it  was  with  the  very  same  body  in 
which  He  lived  and  suffered,  and  was  crucified,  and 
which  was  buried  in  Joseph's  new  tomb,  in  which  no 
other  body  had  ever  been  laid,  that  He  ascended  into 
heaven.  Accordingly  our  records  say  that  He  actually 
ascended— ascended  in  clear  daylight,  in  full  view  of  all 
the  disciples,  in  the  same  body  in  which  He  was  when 
He  talked  with  them,  ate  with  them,  and  had  kept  com- 
pany with  some  of  them  for  forty  days  after  his  resurrec- 
tion. He  blessed  the  disciples,  and  ascended,  and  was 
parted  from  them.  While  they  were  standing  looking  on 
He  went  up  through  the  atmosphere.  Hoio  his  body  thus 
ascended  without  wings  I  am  not  informed ;  but  you 
remember  the  Angel  Jehovah,  who  appeared  to  Manoah, 
and  who  was  no  other  than  Jesus  Christ,  did  the  same 
thing.  This  angel  appeared  in  the  shape,  size,  and  dress 
of  a  pious  prophet.  But  when  the  flame  of  Manoah' s 
altar  of  sacrifice  went  up  toward  heaven  from  off  the 
altar,  then  the  angel  of  the  Lord  ascended  in  the  flame  of 
the  altar.  Judges  xiii.  Nor  is  there  any  difficulty  here 
that  is  not  removed  the  moment  we  remember  that  He  pos- 
sessed absolute  Divinity  as  well  as  true  humanity.     The 


288  CHEIST    ASCEXDED    INTO   HEAVEN. 

power  of  the  Godhead  within  himself  was  quite  sufficient 
to  raise  himself  aloft,  or  to  command  legions  of  angels, 
invisible  to  human  eyes,  to  form  a  glory-cloud  with  their 
wings,  and  bear  Him  up  to  heaven.  The  words  descrip- 
tive of  the  manner  of  his  ascending  are  peculiar  and 
suggestive.  "  Until  the  day  in  which  He  was  taken  up^''^ 
intimating  that  He  was  lifted  up  as  into  a  chariot  of 
triumph  by  legions  of  invisible  angels,  and  borne  aloft 
through  the  air  into  heaven.  And  this  very  properly 
brings  me,  in  the  next  place,  to  inquire  : 

Y.  By  what  cause  or  immediate  agency  did  our  Lord 
rise  from  the  dead  and  ascend  into  heaven  ?  Who 
raised  Jesus  from  the  dead  and  exalted  Him  into  heaven  ? 
The  Agent,  or  immediate  efficient  cause  of  his  exaltation, 
is  certainly  no  other  than  the  power  of  Godhead — 
certainly  could  be  no  other  than  ''  that  Divinity  common 
to  the  three  Persons  not  divided  in  nature,  power,  and 
operation  ;"*  whence  it  is  attributed  most  commonly  to 
God  the  Father,  who  in  the  order  of  nature  and  in  all  com- 
mon operations  precedes.  Sometimes  it  is  ascribed  to 
his  own  power — the  Son  laid  down  his  life  and  took  it 
up  again.  Sometimes,  also,  our  Lord's  resurrection  is 
attributed  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  by  whom  He  was  filled  at 
his  baptism,  and  by  whom  He  cast  out  devils  and 
wrought  his  miracles,  and  so  also  performed  this,  the 
greatest  of  all  his  miracles,  raising  himself  from  the  dead. 
[See  Rom.  viii.  11.]  Observe,  it  is  an  undoubted  ftict, 
that,  according  to  the  Scriptures,  our  Lord' s  resurrection 
from  the  dead  is  ascribed  to  the  Father,  to  himself,  and 
to  the  Holy  Spirit.  Thus  St.  Paul  in  several  places 
ascribes  the  raising  of  Christ  from  the  dead  to  God  the 


*  The  learned  Dr.  Barrow. 


I 


THE    AGENT   OF    HIS    ASCENSION.  289 

Father.  He  says  in  1  Tim.  iv.  13,  that  it  is  a  part  of  the 
Divine  glory,  that  He  who  quickeneth  all  things  raised 
up  the  Lord  Jesus.  And  so  St.  Peter,  on  the  day  of 
Pentecost,  says,  "This  Jesus  hath  God  raised  up.''  And 
St.  Paul  again,  as  if  he  could  not  find  words,  but  labored 
to  express  his  thoughts,  speaks  of  the  ' '  exceeding  great- 
ness of  his  power  which  he  wrought  in  Christ  when  he 
raised  him  from  the  dead."  "He  was  raised  up  from  the 
dead  by  the  glory  of  the  Father."  And  yet  Jesus  him- 
self declared  he  would  raise  himself  up  ;  and  so  also  his 
resurrection  is  ascribed  to  the  Holy  Spirit — ^''quickened 
by  the  SpiriV^ — "  He  was  declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God 
with  power,  according  to  the  Spirit  of  holiness,  by  the 
resurrection  from  the  dead."  Observe  especially  the 
positive  language  of  Peter  in  Acts  v.  30,  31  :  "  The  God 
of  our  fathers  raised  up  Jesus,  whom  ye  slew  and  hanged 
on  a  tree.  Him  hath  God  exalted  with  his  right  hand  to 
be  a  Prince  and  a  Saviour,  for  to  give  repentance  to 
Israel  and  forgiveness  of  sins.  And  we  are  his  witnesses 
of  these  things."  And  again,  in  another  place,  he  said, 
"  Ye  killed  the  Prince  of  Life,  whom  God  hath  raised 
from  the  dead,  whereof  we  are  witnesses."  And  then, 
when  speaking  of  the  lame  man  healed  at  the  Temple 
gate,  he  says,  "  Be  it  known  unto  you  all,  and  to  all  the 
people  of  Israel,  that  by  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  of 
Nazareth,  whom  ye  crucified,  whom  God  raised  from  the 
dead^  even  by  Him  doth  this  man  stand  here  before  you 
whole."  Many  passages  of  Holy  Scripture  ascribe  our 
Lord's  exaltation  to  God  the  Father,  showing  that  "the 
God  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Father  of  glor}^,"  has 
shown  unto  us  the  wonders  of  redemption,  and  "what 
is  the  exceeding  greatness  of  his  power  to  usward  who 
believe,  according  to  the  working  of  his  mighty  power, 
which  He  wrought  in  Christ  when  He  raised  him  from 

19 


290  CHRIST   ASCENDED    INTO   HEAVEN. 

tlie  dead,  and  set  him  at  his  own  right  hand  in  the 
heavenly  places."     Eph.  i.  17-23. 

And  so  also  there  are  many  places  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment where  our  Lord's  resurrection  and  ascension  to  the 
glory  of  the  Father  are  ascribed  to  himself.  In  John  x. 
17;  ii.  19;  v.  26.  As  where  He  says,  "Destroy  this 
temple,"  meaning  his  body,  "and  in  three  days  I  will 
raise  it  up."  I  will.  "Therefore  doth  my  Father  love 
me,  because  I  lay  down  my  life  that  I  might  take  it  again. 
No  man  taketh  it  from  me,  but  I  lay  it  down  of  myself. 
I  have  power  to  lay  it  down,  and  I  have  power  to  take 
it  again.  This  commandment  have  I  received  of  my 
Father.  And  as  the  Father  hath  life  in  Himself,  so  hath 
He  given  to  the  Son  to  have  life  in  himself."  And  his 
promises  were  often  made  in  his  own  name,  and  to  the 
effect  that  He  would  rise  again  from  the  dead  after  He 
should  be  crucified. 

And  so  also  the  same  life-giving  power  which  belongs 
to  the  Father  and  to  the  Son,  belongs  also  to  the  Holy 
Spirit.  The  same  power,  honor,  and  homage  is  ascribed 
to  the  Three  persons  of  the  Godhead.  And  as  Jesus 
Christ  was  conceived  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in 
the  womb  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  so  His  body  was  quickened 
and  raised  by  the  same  Holy  Spirit.  How  then  are  we 
to  understand  these  texts  of  Holy  Scripture  ?  I  answer, 
they  are  all  harmonized  by  receiving  the  doctrine  of  the 
Catechism,  that  "  there  is  but  one  only,  the  living  and 
true  God."  And  that  "there  are  three  persons  in  the 
Godhead  ;  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Hojy  Ghost ;  and 
these  three  are  one  God,  the  same  in  substance,  equal  in 
power  and  glory."  Clearly  there  is  no  other  explanation 
than  this :  the  'same  Divine  Essence  is  common  to  the 
Three  persons  in  the  Godhead. 


WHY   CHRIST   ASCENDED.  291 

yi.    WJty^  then^  did  Christ  ascend  into  heaven  f 

The  REASONS  why  Christ  ascended  into  heaven  are 
plain.  1.  It  was  to  fulfil  the  types  and  prophecies  con- 
cerning the  Messiah.  2.  It  was  necessary  to  fulfil  his 
own  words,  in  which  He  had  foretold  this  of  himself. 
John  vi.  62  ;  xx.  17. 

3.  That  He  might  thus  appear  as  a  Priest  in  the 
presence  of  God  for  us. 

4.  That  He  might  take  upon  himself  more  openly  and 
exercise  more  fully  his  kingly  oflSce  ;  and, 

5.  Give  perfect  assurance  to  his  followers  that  his 
promises  of  life  everlasting  and  of  the  resurrection  of 
their  bodies  were  to  be  faithfully  and  literally  kept. 

By  believing  this  Article,  therefore,  our  faith  is  con- 
firmed in  Jesus  Christ  as  God's  only  Son,  our  Lord  and 
Saviour.  And  our  Hope  is  also  strengthened,  and  our 
affections  are  to  be  set  on  things  above  where  Christ  is. 
''For  where  our  treasure  is,  there  will  our  hearts  be 
also."  ''  If  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  I  will  draw  all 
men  unto  me." 

YII.  Then,  in  the  last  place,  let  us  consider  the 
Benefits  we  derive  from  the  ascension  of  our  Lord  into 
heaven.  For  as  our  Mediator  He  ascended  for  his  people 
as  well  as  for  himself.  His  ascension  proves  his  work 
of  atonement  finished  and  accepted,  and  that  He  has  com- 
pletely triumphed  over  all  his  enemies.  The  Heidelberg 
Catechism  asks  :  "Of  what  advantage  to  us  is  Christ's 
ascension  into  heaven  ?  Ans.  First  That  he  is  our  advo- 
cate in  the  presence  of  his  Father  in  heaven  ;  Secondly. 
That  we  have  our  jlesh  in  heaven,  as  a  sure  pledge  that 


292  CHRIST    ASCEI^DED    INTO    HEAVEN. 

he,  as  the  Head,  will  also  take  up  to  himself,  us,  his 
members  ;  Thirdly,  That  He  sends  us  his  Spirit  as  an 
earnest  by  whose  power  we  seek  the  things  which  are 
above,  where  Christ  sitteth  on  the  right  hand  of  God,  and 
not  things  on  earth." 

1.  As  our  Advocate  with  the  Father,  He  intercedes 
for  the  pardon  of  our  sins,  for  the  acceptance  of  our 
persons  and  services.  He  offers  up  oar  prayers  and 
praises,  pleading  for  their  acceptance  because  of  his  own 
merits,  and  our  complete  salvation  for  his  sake.  ''He 
ever  liveth  to  make  intercession  for  us."  ''If  any  man 
sin,  we  have  an  Advocate  with  the  Father,  Jesus  Christ 
the  Righteous  ;  and  He  is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins. 
Him  hath  God  exalted  as  a  Prince  and  a  Saviour  to  give 
repentance  unto  Israel  and  remission  of  sins." 

"  0  Christ !  the  beauty  of  the  angel  worlds ! 
Of  man  the  Saviour  and  Redeemer  blest  I 
Grant  us  one  day  to  mount  the  path  of  light, 
And  in  thy  glory  rest." 

2.  He  ascended  into  heaven  to  take  possession  of  it, 
and  to  reside  there,  as  to  His  humanity,  in  our  name  and 
behalf  and  in  our  nature.  As  Head  of  His  Church,  He 
sits  on  the  throne  of  dominion,  overruling  all  things  for 
the  Church,  which  is  His  body.  And  as  He  is  there  in 
our  nature.  His  glorified  body  is  a  pledge  that  where  the 
Head  is  the  members  must  be  also.  As  Enoch,  under  the 
patriarchal  dispensation,  was  translated  to  heaven  as  a 
pledge  of  a  future  state  and  the  resurrection  of  the  body  ; 
and  Elijah  under  the  dispensation  of  the  Law  and  the 
Prophets,  so  Jesus  Christ  rose  from  the  dead,  and  in  His 
true  body  ascended  from  earth  to  heaven,  as  a  pledge, 


FRUITS    OF   HIS   ASCENSIOIf.  293 

earnest,  and  proof  of  the  resurrection  of  His  people  and 
their  ascension  to  eternal  glory. 

There  is  a  sense  also  in  which  our  Saviour  went  to 
heaven  to  prepare  a  place  for  us  ;  to  prepare  mansions  in 
His  Father's  house  for  his  followers,  where  is  fulness  of 
joy,  and  at  whose  right  hand  are  pleasures  for  evermore. 
He  is  therefore  our  forerunner,  who  has  gone  to  prepare 
for  our  reception  and  entertainment  in  the  heavenly 
world.  It  is  His  declared  will  that  where  He  is,  there  we 
shall  be  also,  that  we  may  be  partakers  of  his  glory. 
Well  may  it  be  said,  we  have  a  double  assurance  of 
heaven :  since  our  flesh  is  there  as  a  pledge,  and  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  in  our  souls  as  an  earnest. 

Again :  3.  Our  Lord  tells  us  himself  that  it  was 
necessary  for  Him  to  return  to  the  Father,  to  send  the 
Holy  Spirit  to  dicell  in  His  Church  on  earth.  "Never- 
theless I  tell  you  the  truth  :  it  is  expedient  for  you  that 
I  go  away  ;  for  if  I  go  not  away,  the  Comforter  will  not 
come  unto  you  ;  but  if  I  depart,  I  will  send  him  unto 
you."  And  when  "  He,  the  Spirit  of  Truth,  is  come.  He 
will  guide  you  into  all  truth — He  shall  glorify  me :  for 
he  shall  receive  of  mine,  and  shall  shew  it  unto  you." 
And  again,  in  John  vii.  39,  it  is  said,  "the  Holy  Spirit 
was  not  yet  given,  because  that  Jesus  was  not  yet  glori- 
fied." This  clearly  means  that  the  Holy  Spirit  was  not 
yet  poured  out  in  the  manner  and  measure  that  God  did 
intend  to  bestow  it  upon  his  Church,  because  Jesus  was 
not  yet  actually  received  into  glory.  It  was  God' s  pur- 
pose, therefore,  to  send  the  Holy  Spirit  more  abundantly, 
as  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  into  his  people,  as  a  distin- 
guishing sign  of  Christ's  ascension.  And  accordingly, 
just  before  He  ascended,  He  told  his  disciples  to  tarry  in 
the  city  of  Jerusalem  until  they  should  be  endued  with 
power  from  on  high.    "For  behold,  I  send  the  promise  of 


294  CHRIST    ASCE:t!rDED    INTO    HEAVEN. 

my  Father  ripoii  you.  And  He  led  them  out  as  far  as  to 
Bethany  ;  and  he  lifted  up  his  hands,  and  blessed  them. 
And  it  came  to  pass,  while  He  blessed  them.  He  was 
parted  from  them,  and  carried  up  into  heaven.  And 
they  worshipped  him,  and  returned  to  Jerusalem  with 
great  joy  ;  and  were  continually  in  the  temple,  praising 
and  blessing  God."     Luke  xxiv.  49-53. 

It  is  not  for  us  to  explain  why  it  is  that  it  has  pleased 
Infinite  Wisdom  to  bestow  the  gifts  and  graces  of  the 
Divine  Spirit  upon  the  Church,  for  the  enlightening, 
sanctifying,  and  saving  of  His  people,  as  a  reward  for 
the  obedience  of  His  Son,  and  as  a  proof  of  his  ascen- 
sion, but  it  is  in  this  manner  the  Scriptures  set  these 
things  before  us.  The  Apostle  expressly  declares  that 
all  the  gifts  and  graces  bestowed  on  the  Church  for  the 
perfecting  of  the  saints  is  according  to  the  measure  of 
the  gift  of  Christ  after  His  ascension  up  on  high.  **  And 
because  He  was  obedient  to  death,  therefore  did  God 
exalt  him  ;  for  the  suffering  of  death,  we  see  Jesus 
crowned  with  glory  and  honor."  It  is  thus  He  sees  the 
travail  of  his  soul  and  is  satisfied.  And  herein  also  lies 
our  encouragement.  We  cannot  distrust  his  promises  to 
give  us  comfort  in  affliction,  strength  in  weakness,  and 
complete  deliverance  from  all  our  enemies,  for  He  is 
exalted  to  reign  over  all  things  for  His  Church.  He  is 
exalted  as  our  Advocate.  He  is  our  friend  at  court,  to 
receive  and  hand  in  our  petitions,  indorsed  by  his  recom- 
mendation. Wherefore  we  may  come  boldly  to  the 
Throne  of  Grace,  that  we  may  receive  mercy,  and  grace 
to  help  in  time  of  need. 

Grant,  we  beseech  Thee,  Almighty  God,  that  like  as 
we  do  believe  Thy  only-begotten  Son,  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  to  have  ascended  into  the  heavens,   so  we  may 


A   PRAYER.  295 

also,  in  heart  and  mind,  thither  ascend,  and  with  Him 
continually  dwell,  who  liveth  and  reigneth  with  Thee 
and  the  Holy  Ghost,  one  God,  world  without  end. 
Amen. 


296  "SITTETH  AT  THE   EIGHT  HAND   OF  GOD/' 


XIY 


"AND   SITTETH   ON  THE  RIGHT  HAND   OF  GOD. 


"Therefore,  being  by  the  right  hand  of  God  exalted,  and  having  received  of 
the  Father  the  promise  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  He  hath  shed  forth  this,  which  ye 
now  see  and  hear." — Acts  il  33. 

'  *  Looking  unto  Jesus,  **  *  *  and  is  set  down  at  the  right  hand  of  the 
throne  of  God."— Heb.  xii.  2. 

"  Tho  God  of  our  fathers  raised  up  Jesus,  whom  ye  slew  and  hanged  on  a 
tree.  Him  hath  God  exalted  with  his  right  hand  to  be  a  Prince  and  a  Saviour, 
for  to  give  repentance  to  Israel,  and  forgiveness  of  sins." — Acts  v.  30,  31,  with 
Eph.  i.  20-23,  inclusive. 

In  tlie  Discourse  last  Sabbath  evening  on  the  sixth 
Article  of  our  Creed,  which  is  in  these  words:  *'He 
ascended  into  heaven,  and  sitteth  on  the  right  hand  of 
God  the  Father  Almighty,"  I  desired  you  to  consider  it 
as  divided  into  two  parts  :  First.  Our  Lord' s  ascension. 
Secondly.  His  position — ''  sitteth  on  the  right  hand  of 
God  the  Father  Almighty."  The  first  part  was  the  sub- 
ject of  the  last  Discourse,  in  which  I  spoke  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  Article,  how  it  has  been  regarded  by  the 
Church,  and  how  the  festival  of  Ascension  Day  has  been 
observed.  I  endeavored  to  explain  the  fact  of  the 
ascension  of  our  Lord,  its  nature^  manner.,  truili  and 
certainty  J  necessity  and  advantages.      The  proofs  of  the 


HIS   BODY   IN   HEAVEN.  29T 

fact  were  named,  and  the  nature  and  properties  of  the 
body  in  which  Christ  ascended  were  found  to  constitute 
the  spiritual  body  of  St.  Paul,  which  he  declares  is  the 
body  of  believers  in  the  resurrection.  The  body  in 
which  Christ  ascended  into  heaven,  and  which  is  still  in 
heaven,  according  to  our  standards,  and  of  the  Orthodox 
Church  throughout  the  world,  is  '^  the  very  same  body  in 
which  he  suffered,  with  the  essential  properties  thereof," 
^'with  flesh,  bones,  and  all  things  appertaining  to  the 
perfection  of  man's  nature,"  "  but  without  mortality  and 
other  common  infirmities  belonging  to  this  life."  When 
our  Lord  rose  from  the  dead.  He  took  again  the  same 
body  ill  which  He  lived,  suffered,  and  died,  and  in  this 
same  body  He  ascended  into  heaven.  This  body  had  the 
same  senses  that  belonged  to  it  before  death,  and  they 
were  capable  of  the  same,  and  even  of  a  greater  perfec- 
tion of  their  functions,  as  it  was  now  a  spiritual  body — 
that  is,  a  purified,  a  heavenly  body.  This  was  the  doc- 
trine of  the  best,  and,  in  fact,  of  almost  all  the  Fathers. 

It  will  be  remembered,  also,  that  in  the  history  of  the 
ascension  of  our  Lord,  two  places  are  distinctly  specified 
— the  place  from  which  He  ascended,  and  the  place  to 
which  He  ascended.  He  ascended  from  the  side  of  Mount 
Olivet,  which  lies  towards  the  town  of  Bethany,  and  on 
the  border  of  the  district  or  township  of  Bethany ;  and 
"He  ascended  into  heaven,'^ ^  where  He  ''sitteth  on  the 
right  hand  of  God  the  Father  Almighty."  It  is  of  the 
position,  posture,  or  ''the  session"  of  our  Lord's  human 
nature  in  heaven  that  I  am  to  speak  this  evening.  And 
the  order  I  propose  is — 

I.  The  fact  itself,  as  stated  in  the  Holy  Scriptures. 

II.  Some  explanation  of  the  terms  or  phrases,  ''into 
heaven,"  and  "  sitteth  at  the  right  hand  of  God  the 
Father." 


298  "SITTETH   AT   THE    EIGHT   HAND    OF   GOD.'' 

III.  Some  reasons  for  Christ's  '^session"  on  God's 
right  hand  in  heaven. 

I.  The  fact  itself.  The  learned  and  eloquent  Witsius 
introduces  his  dissertation  on  Christ's  sitting  at  the  right 
hand  of  God  the  Father  in  the  following  style  :  Whoever 
loves  Christ  in  sincerity,  cannot  fail,  on  many  accounts, 
to  take  pleasure  in  meditating  on  that  unbounded  glory, 
to  which  the  Father  has  been  pleased  to  exalt  him.  No 
spectacle  can  be  more  excellent,  more  splendid,  or  more 
delightful  in  the  esteem  of  believers,  than  that  to  which 
they  are  invited  in  the  Song  of  Solomon :  ''Go  forth,  O 
ye  daughters  of  Zion,  and  behold  King  Solomon  with  the 
crown  wherewith  his  mother  crowned  him,  in  the  day 
of  his  espousals,  and  in  the  day  of  the  gladness  of  his 
heart."  According  to  his  method  of  interpreting  Scrip- 
ture, which  is  still  followed  by  many  good  men.  King 
Solomon  here  is  the  Lord  Jesus  ;  the  day  of  his  espousals 
is  the  Gospel  dispensation,  which  is  the  day  of  the  glad- 
ness of  his  heart.  And  the  putting  of  the  crown  upon 
his  head  denotes  the  great  glory  of  his  kingdom  by  the 
conversion  of  souls,  as  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  and  in 
the  spread  of  the  Gospel.  I  do  not  altogether  adopt  this 
typical  illustration,  but  still  the  application  is  beautiful. 
And  we  can  all  pray  that  the  daughters  of  Zion,  true 
believers  in  Jesus,  may  come  in  great  crowds  from  all 
parts  of  the  world  to  behold  His  crown. 

As  to  the  fact :  ''and  sitteth  on  the  right  hand  of  God, 
the  Father  Almighty."  First  The  Scriptures  speak  as 
plainly  and  as  positively  as  they  can.  Mark  says,  "He 
was  received  up  into  heaven,  and  sat  on  the  right  hand 
of  God."  And  this  was  the  fulfilment  of  our  Lord's  own 
words  to  the  priest,  who  asked  him,  "Art  thou  the  Christ, 
the  Son  of  the  Blessed  ?  and  Jesus  said,  I  am  :  and  ye 


THE   SCEIPTUKES   FULFILLED.  299 

shall  see  the  Son  of  Man  sitting  on  the  right  hand  of 
power,  and  coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven."  Mark 
xvi.  19 ;  xiv.  62.  The  same  is  found  in  Matt.  xxvi.  64. 
And  in  Luke  xx.  42,  our  Lord  quotes  the  110th  Psalm,  1, 
and  applies  it  to  himself.     See  verses  41-44. 

And  before  the  council  of  the  elders  and  chief  priests, 
when  they  demanded  to  know  whether  He  were  the 
Christ  or  not,  He  said.  Hereafter  shall  the  Son  of  Man 
sit  on  the  right  hand  of  the  pow^er  of  God,  and  by  this 
He  meant  He  was  the  Son  of  God.  Luke  xxii.  69,  70. 
And  Acts  ii.  34-36.  Peter,  preaching  by  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  applies  the  110th  Psalm,  1,  to  Jesus.  In  Rom. 
viii.  34:  "Who  is  he  that  condemneth?  It  is  Christ 
that  died,  yea  rather,  that  is  risen  again,  who  is  even 
at  the  right  hand  of  God,  who  also  maketh  intercession 
for  us." 

*'  If  ye  then  be  risen  with  Christ,  seek  those  things 
which  are  above,  where  Christ  sitteth  on  the  right  hand 
of  God."  Col.  iii.  1.  "  By  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ, 
who  is  gone  into  heaven,  and  is  on  the  right  hand  of  God  ; 
angels,  and  authorities,  and  powers,  being  made  subject 
unto  him."     1  Pet.  iii.  22,  with  Hebrews  i.  3  and  13. 

And  Heb.  viii.  1 :  "  We  have  such  an  high  priest,  who 
is  set  on  the  right  hand  of  the  throne  of  the  Majesty  in  the 
heavens."  Now  there  can  be  no  denial  but  that  these 
texts  refer  to  Jesus  Christ. 

And  Secondly.  As  the  largest  portion  of  the  Apostles' 
Creed  is  composed  of  terms,  words,  and  statements  de- 
signed to  embody  and  set  forth  the  true  faith  concerning 
our  Lord  Jesus^  so  these  statements  are  meant  to  deny 
and  refute  heresies  that  disturbed  the  faithful  followers 
of  Jesus  even  in  the  early  ages  of  the  Church.  Many 
erroneous  and  blasphemous  doctrines  were  taught,  and 


300  "  SITTETH    AT   THE    EIGHT   HAND    OF   GOD." 

foolish  conceits  indulged,  even  in  the  days  of  the  Apos- 
tles, by  Judaizing  and  philosophical  teachers,  concerning 
the  human  nature  of  our  Lord.  His  Divinity  was 
admitted,  but  his  humanity  denied.  Hence,  the  Creed 
was  intended  to  affirm  that  his  human  nature  was  perfect 
— that  though  conceived  by  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the  womb 
of  the  Virgin  Mary,  yet  He  was  truly  born  of  her,  taking 
a  true  body  from  her  substance,  and  having  a  reasonable 
soul — and  that  it  was  this  perfect  human  body  that  was 
really  crucified,  dead  and  buried,  and  rose  again  and 
ascended  into  heaven,  and  sitteth  still  at  the  right  hand  of 
the  Throne  of  God.  And  thus  the  Creed  denies  the  doc- 
trine of  the  heretics  who  said  that  His  body  was  not  real, 
but  only,  assumed,  and  also  the  doctrine  of  those  who 
said  that  when  His  Divinity  left  his  body  it  dissolved 
into  air,  or,  as  some  of  them  have  said,  his  body  ascended 
only  as  far  as  the  sun,  in  which  it  was  deposited.  On  the 
contrary,  the  true  faith  of  the  Church,  and  which  is  cer- 
tainly according  to  the  Holy  Scriptures,  is :  that  Christ 
took  his  body,  the  very  same  body  that  was  laid  in 
Joseph's  new  tomb,  and  which  was  a  perfect  human 
bod}^,  but  free  from  all  sin,  and  hence  could  not  see  cor- 
ruption in  the  grave,  and  with  this  body  came  forth  from 
the  sepulchre,  and  in  it  appeared  alive  after  his  resurrec- 
tion for  forty  days,  and  in  the  same  body  ascended  into 
heaven,  where  He  sitteth  at  the  right  hand  of  God. 

II.  The  words  into  heaven  and  sitteth  imply  clearly  that 
Heaven  is  a  "place  as  well  as  a  state.  Into  heaven  indi- 
cates the  place  to  which  our  Lord  ascended.  Heaven,  in 
ordinary  language,  the  immediate  presence  of  God — the 
place  of  purity  and  happiness  where  God' s  greatest  favor 
is  enjoyed.  The  Jews  used  the  term  for  heaven,  however, 
in  a  more  general  sense.  The  clouds  are  called  ^'the 
clouds  of  heaven,"  that  is,  of  the  first  heaven.     And 


INTO   HEAVEN   OF   HEAVENS.  301 

Paul  speaks  of  being'  caught  up  into  the  third  heaven, 
and  sometimes  we  hear  of  the  seventh  heaven,  and  the 
heaven  of  heavens,  and  in  Hebrews  vii.  26,  it  is  said : 
'^  And  he  must  needs  pass  through  the  heavens,  because 
He  was  made  higher  than  the  heavens."  And  again, 
Eph.  iv.  10:  ''For  He  that  descended  is  the  same  also 
that  ascended  up  far  above  all  heavens."  And  in  Heb. 
ix.  12,  24,  we  are  expressly  told  that  Christ  our  High 
Priest  entered  into  that  within  the  veil — "into  the  holy 
place,  even  into  heaven  itself  to  appear  in  the  presence 
of  God."  This  is  the  place  called  the  heaven  of  heavens. 
And  by  ascending  into  heaven,  our  Lord  fulfilled  his 
words  to  his  disciples  when  He  said  :  "  What  and  if  ye 
shall  see  the  Son  of  Man  ascend  up  where  He  was 
before."  Now  as  the  Son  of  God  came  from  the  Father 
Almighty,  it  was  not  strange  that  He  should  return  to 
Him — to  the  place  where  He  was  before  his  actual  incar- 
nation ;  but  it  is  a  wonderful  display  of  his  sovereign 
love,  that  He  should  take  our  nature  from  the  grave,  and 
in  it  ascend  to  the  heaven  of  heavens — that  His  body 
which  was  taken  out  of  the  substance  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin,  and  which  was  a  true  human  body — with  flesh 
and  blood,  and  bones,  like  ours — that  He  should  take 
this  body  to  the  right  hand  of  Infinite  Majesty,  to  be 
seated  above  angels,  and  archangels,  and  principalities, 
and  powers  :  this  is  what  he  meant  when  He  spoke  to  his 
disciples  about  going  up  to  where  He  was  before.  Bishop 
Pearson  speaks  of  the  Heaven  of  the  Creed  into  which 
Jesus  ascended,  in  this  way:  "Whatsoever  heaven," 
says  he,  "  then,  is  higher  than  all  the  rest  which  are  called 
heavens  ;  whatsoever  sanctuary  is  holier  than  all  which 
are  called  holies  ;  whatsoever  place  is  of  greatest  dignity 
in  all  those  courts  above,  into  that  place  did  He  ascend, 
where  in  the  splendor  of  his  Deity  he  was,  before  he  took 
upon  him  our  humanity."  p.  400. 


302  "  SITTETH    AT   THE   RIGHT   HAND    OF   GOB." 

It  may  not  be  out  of  place  here  to  remark,  that  the 
late  eminent  and  scholarly  Sir  William  Rowan  Hamilton, 
of  Dublin,  attempted  to  illustrate  from  our  Lord's  ascen- 
sion the  vastness  of  our  universe,  and  the  consequent 
glory  of  our  Lord  as  Head  over  all  to  His  Church.  It  is 
certainly  a  very  ingenious  attempt  to  elucidate  one  of  the 
grandest  questions  of  our  faith.  His  theory  is  this.  As 
God  is  everywhere  present,  the  ascension  is  predicable 
only  of  our  Lord's  body,  which  is  certainly  correct. 
Then  a  local  translation  of  Christ's  body  implies  a  change 
of  place^  and  a  change  of  place  requires  time ;  and  as  we 
have  already  attempted  to  show,  this  must  also  be  true. 
For  even  a  spiritual  body  is  material,  and  cannot  be 
ubiquitous,  nor  pass  without  a  period  of  time  from  one 
place  to  another.  But  what  has  all  this  to  do  with  our 
Lord's  ascending  into  heaven  ?  Well,  let  us  see.  (1.)  The 
ascension  was  gradual.  While  our  Lord  was  blessing 
his  disciples.  He  was  parted  from  them.  A  cloud 
received  him,  and  as  they  stood  gazing  up  towards 
heaven,  he  disappeared  far  up,  passing  still  upwards 
through  the  air.  His  ascension  did  occupy  time.  It  was 
not  instantaneous.  (2.)  Is  it  not  reasonable,  then,  to 
suppose  that  still  more  time  was  occupied  in  the  ascend- 
ing of  his  body,  after  the  disciples  lost  sight  of  him  ?  The 
cloud  that  received  Him  out  of  their  sight  was  not  the 
heaven  where  Jesus  sitteth  at  the  right  hand  of  God. 
Some  period  of  time  must  have  elapsed  between  his  dis- 
appearing in  the  cloud  over  the  Mount  of  Olives,  and 
his  taking  his  seat  at  His  Father' s  right  hand.  Bui  7iow 
long  was  this  period  f  1  cannot  decide.  May  we  say  it 
was  ten  days  ?  Did  it  take  the  human  body  of  our 
blessed  Lord  ten  days  to  ascend  into  the  heaven  which  is 
far  above  all  heavens  ?  If  so,  then  how  mighty,  how  vast 
is  our  Father's  house  !  No  eye,  no  telescope  has  pierced 
through  the  awful  interspace.     Light  itself  may  not  yet 


TEN   DAYS    ASCENDING.  303 

have  been  able  to  come  from  thence  to  ns.  And  who  can 
tell  but  such  an  effluence  of  light  from  the  Eternal  Throne 
is  to  burst  upon  us  when  the  new  heavens  and  the  new 
earth  are  to  appear  ?  I  do  not  say,  brethren,  this  is  to  be 
an  Article  of  Faith.  I  do  not  venture  to  say  that  Christ' s 
body  was  ten  days  in  ascending  into  heaven.  Reason 
has  nothing  to  say  on  this  point.  It  is  a  matter  of 
Revelation,  and  revelation  leaves  us  with  a  record  that 
only  suggests.  And  the  suggestion  lies  in  this  way  : 
First.  According  to  the  Scriptures,  our  Lord's  ascension 
was  to  be  before  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Spirit  on  the 
day  of  Pentecost.  The  Scriptures  fully  authorize  us  to 
say  that  the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit  are  ascribed  to  Christ' s 
ascension  as  a  completed  act.  Secondly.  The  descent  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  being  purely  Divine,  Spiritual,  cannot 
be  measured  by  time.  Thirdly.  As  our  Lord's  ascen- 
sion into  heaven  is  alluded  to  in  the  Scriptures  in  such 
close  connection  with  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
may  we  not  say,  that  as  soon  as  Jesus  took  his  seat  on 
the  right  hand  of  God,  then  the  Holy  Spirit  fell  upon  the 
Apostles  ?  May  not  the  finished  work  of  ascending  up 
on  high  have  been  instantly  followed  by  the  wonderful 
outpouring  of  the  Spirit  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  ?  And 
we  know  that  Pentecost  was  ten  days  after  the  Ascension. 
May  not  the  transit  of  our  Lord  from  the  cloud  over 
Bethany  to  the  Throne  have  been  but  one  continued  pas- 
sage, in  long  triumphal  pomp,  through  Powers  and  Prin- 
cipalities made  subject  to  him?  May  not  the  only- 
begotten  Son  have  then  been  set  forth  by  proclamation 
and  investiture,  while  the  Universe  beheld  its  God,  and 
all  the  angels  worshipped  him  ?*  And  would  not  this 
view  harmonize  with  the  110th  Psalm,  and  the  application 


*  See  North  British  Review,  Sept  1866,  p.  37. 


304  "  SITTETH   AT   THE   EIGHT   HAND    OF   GOD." 

of  it  to  Christ  by  the  Apostles?  Was  it  not  thus  the 
everlasting  gates  lifted  up.  their  heads,  that  the  King  of 
Glory  might  return  to  his  Throne  ?  This  view  is  not  con- 
trary to  Scripture  or  the  articulated  faith  of  the  people 
of  God,  as  far  as  I  know.  And  it  certainly  opens  up 
grand  conceptions  of  the  glory  of  Christ,  as  well  as  of  the 
mighty  vastness  of  our  Father's  House,  in  which  are 
many  mansions. 

Although  there  are  but  few  themes,  if  indeed  there 
are  any,  in  the  whole  range  of  theological  contemplation, 
more  noble  than  this  one — very  few  more  sublime  and 
profitable  for  devout  reflections — yet  it  is  a  subject  of 
considerable  difficulty,  and  of  much  controversy  among 
learned  men,  both  ancient  and  modern.  It  is  the  more 
important,  therefore,  that  in  our  remarks  we  should  en- 
deavor to  keep  the  facts  as  stated  in  the  Holy  Scriptures 
distinctly  before  us,  and  try  to  know  the  meaning  of  the 
terms  in  which  these  facts  are  set  forth. 

I  do  not  understand  that  the  Creed  or  the  Word  of 
God  tea(jhes,  that  Christ' s  sitting  at  the  right  hand  of  God 
means  that  He  is  not  equal  to  the  Father.  I  do  not  see 
that  the  learned  controversies  that  have  been  carried  on 
about  the  place  of  honor  among  the  ancients,  or  with  the 
Romans,  have  any  thing  to  do  with  this  point.  Whether 
with  the  Romans  the  highest  place  of  honor  was  at  the 
right  hand  or  at  the  left  one,  has  nothing  to  do  with 
this  Article.  All  we  need  to  know  is,  that  the  Bible 
speaks  of  the  practice  of  the  Hebrews.  In  the  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews,  we  have  the  expressions,  ''the  right  hand 
of  the  Majesty,"  and  "  the  right  hand  of  the  Throne  of  the 
Majesty,"  and  ''the  right  hand  of  the  Throne  of  God," 
clearly  intimating  that  this  was  the  place  of  honor.  Accord- 
ingly, we  find  in  the  80th  Psalm,  17,  that  the  man  whom 


THE    RIGHT   HAND   IS   HONOR.  305 

Grod  loves  and  honors  is  tlie  man  of  Ms  riglit  hand.  And 
Solomon  says  :  "  xl  wise  man's  heart  is  at  his  right  hand  ; 
but  a  fool's  heart  is  at  his  left."  The  meaning  of  this  is, 
that  riglii-Ttand  tilings  are  wise,  useful,  excellent,  good  ; 
and  left-hand  things  are  just  the  contrary.  In  Joseph's 
placing  of  his  sons  to  receive  his  father's  blessing,  we  find 
the  elder  on  Jacob's  right  hand,  as  the  place  of  the  highest 
honor.  And  Job  complains  of  the  want  of  respect  among 
the  young  men  of  his  day  for  the  aged,  by  saying  that 
things  had  come  to  such  a  pass,  that  even  the  lads,  the 
youth  not  of  age,  assumed  to  take  their  places  at  his  right 
hand.  And  our  Lord  himself  declares  that  at  the  last 
day,  His  people  will  be  set  on  his  right  hand,  as  a  token 
of  his  approbation  and  of  the  honors  to  be  done  to  them  ; 
but  the  wicked  on  his  left,  in  testimony  of  their  disgrace. 
The  sacred  writers  certainly  refer  to  the  custom  of  the 
Hebrews,  and  mean  by  the  right  hand,  the  place  of  high- 
est honor — denoting  dignity  equal  to  that  of  the  Father. 
Chrysostom  says  :  "If  inferiority  had  been  intended,  the 
Scriptures  would  have  placed  our  Lord  on  the  left  hand 
of  the  Throne."  And  TheopJiylact  says :  "  Christ  sitteth 
on  the  right  hand,  and  on  liigh ;  in  order  to  show  that  He 
is  equal  in  dignity  to  the  Father."  And  another  old 
writer  says  :  "  The  Father  offers  Christ  his  Son  an  exalt- 
ed place  by  himself  on  his  Throne  ;  and,  for  the  purpose 
of  doing  him  honor,  he  has  set  him  in  an  everlasting  seat 
at  his  right  hand."* 

Is  Christ,  then,  greater  than  the  Father?  So  some 
Socinians  have  charged  us  with  holding.  They  say  it 
must  be  so,  if  our  views  of  the  dignity  of  sitting  at  the 
right  hand  of  the  Father  Almighty  are  correct.  But  the 
Apostle  takes  an  entirely  different  view:     "When  all 


*  Quoted  from  Witsius,  vol.  ii.  p.  242. 
20 


306  "  SITTETH   AT   THE   EIGHT   HAISD    OF    GOD." 

things  are  put  under  Him,  it  is  manifest  that  He  is 
excepted,  who  did  put  all  things  under  Him."  1  Cor. 
XV.  27.  It  is  clear  therefore  that  sitting  at  the  right  hand 
of  the  Throne  of  God  does  not  mean  superiority,  but 
only  that  He  is  equal,  not  inferior.  The  Father  is  con- 
sidered as  sitting  in  the  midst  of  the  throne,  and  our  Lord 
as  Mediator  is  next  in  dignity.  IN'or  are  you  to  suppose 
that  the  seat  on  the  left  of  the  throne  must  always  be 
filled  with  some  other  person  who  is  inferior.  When 
King  Solomon  desired  to  show  that  there  was  no  one 
whom  he  would  honor  more  than  his  mother  Bathsheba, 
he  placed  her  on  his  right  hand,  whereas  if  he  had 
placed  her  at  his  left  side,  leaving  the  seat  at  his  right 
side,  vacant,  it  would  still  have  implied  there  was  some 
one  to  be  preferred  to  his  mother,  although  not  then 
actually  occupying  the  seat  of  dignity.  The  representa- 
tion of  the  Persons  of  the  Godhead  as  occupying  a  throne 
refers  to  the  administration  of  the  Mediatorial  kingdom 
of  our  Lord  Jesus.  And  his  Session  at  the  right  hand  is 
a  metaphor,  signifying  that  He  occupies  the  place  of 
honor,  of  power,  and  of  joy.    And  so  also. 

The  term  sitteth  on  the  right  hand  of  God  the  Father 
Almighty  in  heaven  is  metaphorical,  not  expressive  of 
literal  posture,  but  implying  dignity,  sovereignty,  repose, 
continuance,  and  the  exercise  of  supreme  judgment  and 
authority.  Our  learned  men  have  shown  that  it  denotes, 
firsts  honor.  Servants  stand,  but  the  master  sits.  Angels 
stand  around  the  Throne;  but  Daniel  says,  "I  beheld 
till  the  thrones  were  cast  down,  and  the  Ancient  of 
days  did  siV^  And  in  showing  Christ's  superiority  to 
angels,  the  Apostle  asks  :  *'To  which  of  the  angels  said 
He  at  any  time.  Sit  thou  on  my  right  hand  ?" 

Secondly.  It  expresses  judicial  and  royal  authority. 
"Ye  also  shall  sit  upon  twelve  thrones,  judging  the 


SITTDiTG    AND    STANDING.  307 

twelve  tribes  of  Israel."  Matt.  xix.  28.  And  it  was 
predicted  of  the  Messiah  that  He  shall  bear  the  glory,  and 
shall  sit  and  rule  upon  his  Throne.  ''In  mercy  shall  the 
Throne  be  established,  and  He  shall  sit  upon  it."  Zech. 
vi.  13.     Isa.  xvi.  5. 

Thirdly.  Sltteth  at  the  right  hand  of  God  denotes  rest 
and  long  continuance  in  dignity.  It  refers  to  the  glorious 
rest  which  the  Redeemer  enjoys.  *'  Sit  thou  at  my  right 
hand,  until  I  make  thine  enemies  thy  footstool."  Ps. 
ex.  1.  "  For  He  must  reign  till  He  hath  put  all  enemies 
under  His  feet."     1  Cor.  xv.  25. 

We  must  not  think,  however,  that  our  Lord's  sitting 
is  inconsistent  with  Stephen' s  vision  of  him  "  standing  at 
the  right  hand  of  God."  Here  the  word  does  not  denote 
posture  of  the  body  so  much  as  his  perfect  readiness  to 
receive  the  martyr' s  soul.  Sitting  expresses  his  glorious 
rest  and  authority  ;  and  standing  declares  his  readiness  to 
protect  his  servant.  Thus  Gregory  the  Great  says  :  *'  We 
must  consider  what  is  intended  by  Mark' s  expression,  '  He 
sat  on  the  right  hand  of  God,'  and  by  Stephen's  saying, 
'  I  see  the  heavens  opened,  and  the  Son  of  Man  standing 
on  the  right  hand  of  God.'  Why  does  Mark  affirm  that 
He  sits,  while  Stephen  avers  that  he  saw  Him  standing  ? 
But  know,  brethren,  that  it  belongs  to  a  judge  to  sit ;  to  a 
warrior,  or  helper,  to  stand.  Since,  therefore,  our  Re- 
deemer, being  exalted  to  heaven,  even  now  exercises 
universal  judgment,  and  will  come  at  last  as  the  Judge 
of  all,  Mark  describes  Him  as  sitting  after  He  was 
received  up  ;  for,  in  consequence  of  the  glory  of  His 
ascension,  He  will  appear  as  Judge  at  the  end  of  the 
world.  Stephen,  engaged  in  the  labors  of  the  contest, 
beheld  him  whom  he  regarded  as  his  helper  in  a  stand- 
ing posture  ;  because  He  fought  for  him,  and  supported 


308  "  SITTETH    AT   THE   RIGHT   HAND    OF    GOD." 

him  by  his  grace  from  heaven,  that  He  might  obtain  the 
victory  over  the  perverseness  of  His  persecutors  on 
earth."* 

The  meaning,  then,  of  the  words  :  "And  sitteth  on  the 
right  hand  of  God  the  Father  Almighty,"  is  that  Christ 
in  his  person  and  in  his  kingly  office  occupies  the  highest 
glory.  This  is  the  crowning  part  of  His  exaltation. 
Even  on  earth  He  was  transfigured,  as  an  illustration  of 
the  glory  that  was  in  him,  but  then  veiled,  and  in  his 
resurrection  He  came  forth  from  the  dead  to  an  immortal 
state,  and  in  his  ascension  'VHe  was  received  up  into 
heaven  and  sat  on  the  right  hand  of  God."  This  glory 
is  peculiar  to  Christ.  "•  He  set  him  at  his  own  right 
hand  in  the  heavenly  places,  far  above  all  principalities, 
and  power,  and  might,  and  dominion,  and  every  name 
that  is  named,  not  only  in  this  world,  but  also  in  that 
which  is  to  come  :  and  hath  put  all  things  .under  His  feet, 
and  gave  Him  to  be  the  Head  over  all  things  to  the 
Church,  which  is  His  body,  the  fulness  of  Him  that 
filleth  all  in  all."  Eph.  i.  20,  23.  From  this  passage  of 
the  Apostle  it  is  clear  that  Christ  is  above  all  prophets, 
teachers,  and  legislators  of  past  ages,  and  of  the  present 
and  of  all  future  ages  of  the  Church.  Men  and  angels, 
however  glorious  in  his  service,  are  under  Him.  '  So  it 
was  with  Moses  and  the  Prophets,  and  so  it  was  with  his 
own  Apostles,  and  so  in  all  ages  to  come,  Christ  is  far 
higher  than  all  the  angels.  No  creature  is  associated 
with  Him  in  his  dominion.  He  is  the  sole,  Supreme, 
only  "Head  over  all  things  to  the  Church,  which  is  his 
body,  the  fulness  of  Him  that  filleth  all  in  all." 

But  it  is  said,  believers  have  the  promise  of  reigning 


*  Quoted  out  of  Witsius,  vol.  ii.  pp.  248,  249. 


EEIGNING   WITH   CHRIST.  309 

witli  Him,  of  sitting  on  thrones,  standing  at  his  right  hand, 
and  the  Apostles  are  to  sit  on  thrones  with  Him,  judg- 
ing the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel.  Now,  I  apprehend  that 
these  and  all  such  expressions  are  figurative.  They  mean 
identity  of  will  and  communion  with  Him.  They  approve 
of  and  rejoice  in  His  government  and  in  His  glory,  as  if  it 
were  their  own.  When  it  is  said  believers  are  *'  partakers 
of  the  Divine  nature,"  the  meaning  is  not  that  they 
become  infinite  as  God  is  infinite.  The  only  sense  possi- 
ble to  such  a  phrase  is  that  they  are  partakers  of  Divine 
things,  not  in  degree  and  quality,  but  in  Mnd — they  are 
assimilated  in  a  small  degree  to  His  likeness. 

The  words,  then,  '*sat  down  at  the  right  hand  of  the 
Throne  of  God,"  express  the  glory  of  our  Lord,  which 
is  common  to  Him  and  the  Father  and  the  Holy  Spirit ; 
and  they  set  forth  at  the  same  time  the  peculiar  glory 
which,  according  to  the  mystery  of  the  Trinity  of  Persons 
in  the  Godhead,  is  to  be  ascribed  to  the  person  and  offices 
of  Christ  as  Mediator.  We  do  not  read  anywhere  in  the 
Bible  that  the  Holy  Spirit  sits  at  the  right  hand  of  God. 
Nor  do  we  read  of  the  Holy  Spirit  being  born  of  a  woman, 
or  sent  into  the  world  to  suffer  and  die.  As  it  was  the 
Son  of  God,  the  person  Christ  Jesus,  who  fills  the  office 
of  Mediator,  so  the  glory  of  that  office  belongs  only  to 
Him.  He  therefore  sits  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Throne. 
You  have  observed,  doubtless,  that  the  term  holy  is  an 
eminent  specialty  of  the  third  person  of  the  ineffable 
Trinity.  Why  is  this  ?  Not  because  the  third  person  is 
more  holy  than  the  first  or  the  second ;  but  simply, 
because  it  is  the  divine  economy  that  the  third  person 
shall  operate  on  the  human  heart,  and  make  it  holy  by 
applying  to  it  the  benefits  purchased  by  the  death  of 
Christ.  And  hence  the  third  person  is  called  the  Holy 
Ghost,  or  the  Holy  Spirit,  because  it  is  his  office  to  make 


310  "SITTETH   AT   THE   RIGHT   HAND    OF    GOD." 

men  holy.  And  as  Christ  is  the  Mediator  between  God 
and  men,  so  his  person  and  offices  are  peculiarly  glorified 
by  his  ascending  into  heaven  and  sitting  at  the  right  hand 
of  the  Throne  of  God.  His  own  glorified  body  is  there  in 
the  glory  which,  as  God's  own  Son,  he  had  with  the 
Father  before  the  world  was.  And  in  respect  to  his 
office,  He  fills  it  by  sitting  at  the  right  hand  of  God  the 
Father — that  is.  He  is  reigning,  ruling,  ministering,  and 
governing  all  things  for  his  Church.  As  Peter  said  : 
*' Therefore,  let  all  the  house  of  Israel  know  assuredly 
that  God  hath  made  that  same  Jesus,  whom  ye  have  cru- 
cified, both  Lord  and  Christ."  ''  Being  by  the  right  hand 
of  God  exalted." 

III.  In  the  third  place,  let  us  inquire,  why  is  Christ 
thus  sat  down  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Throne  of  God  in 
heaven  ? 

1.  To  show  the  glory  of  God  the  Father.  "  God  hath 
highly  exalted  him,"  Phil.  ii.  9.  In  his  resurrection  from 
the  dead,  our  Lord  received  his  discharge  for  the  full 
payment  of  the  debt  He  assumed  for  us ;  and  in  his 
ascension  the  Father  recalls  him,  as  an  ambassador  who 
has  accomplished  his  mission  in  a  foreign  country  is  called 
home  to  his  native  land  to  enjoy  the  honors  and  fruits  of 
his  labors.  As  God's  onl}^  Son,  He  has  essentially  a 
kingdom  and  glory,  but  it  is  in  his  mediatorial  or  personal 
kingdom  as  God-man  that  we  see  him  sitting  at  the 
Father's  right  hand.  In  his  humiliation,  he  emptied 
himself  of  his  glory,  took  on  himself  our  nature.  In  his 
exaltation  He  takes  human  nature  with  him  to  his  eternal 
glory,  and  in  it  is  exalted,  that  in  all  things  He  might 
have  the  pre-eminence.  For  He  is  the  Head  of  the  body, 
the  Church,  who  is  the  beginning,  the  first-born  from 
the  dead. 


CHRIST   INTERCEDmG.  311 

**Who,  being  in  the  form  of  God,  thought  it  not 
robbery  to  be  equal  with  God  : 

^*  But  made  himself  of  no  reputation,  and  took  upon 
him  the  form  of  a  servant,  and  was  made  in  the  likeness 
of  men : 

**  And  being  found  in  fashion  as  a  man,  he  humbled 
himself,  and  became  obedient  unto  death,  even  the  death 
of  the  cross. 

'' Wherefore  God  also  hath  highly  exalted  him,  and 
given  him  a  name  which  is  above  every  name : 

"That  at  the  name  of  Jesus  every  knee  should 
bow,  of  things  in  heaven,  and  things  in  earth,  and  tilings 
under  the  earth : 

''And  that  every  tongue  should  confess  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  Lord,  to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father."  Phil.  ii. 
6-11. 

In  the  work  of  redemption  Christ  glorifies  the  truth, 
holiness,  justice,  and  mercy  of  God.  The  Father  is  glo- 
rified in  the  Son. 

2.  One  part  of  His  office  as  our  High  Priest  is  to 
appear  before  God  to  make  intercession  for  us.  You 
remember  that  when  Solomon  had  caused  his  mother  to 
be  seated  at  his  right  hand,  he  assured  her  that  none  of 
her  requests  should  be  denied.  But  how  much  more 
may  we  rely  on  the  interceding  requests  of  Jesus  sitting 
at  the  right  hand  of  the  Throne  of  God  ?  He  upholdeth 
all  things  by  the  word  of  his  power,  and  having  made 
an  atonement  by  the  sacrifice  of  liiiiiself  to  satisfy  Divine 
Justice,  He  then  sat  down  at  the  right  hand  of  the 
Majesty  on  high,  to  make  intercession  for  us.  "  For  Christ 
is  entered  into  heaven  itself,  now  to  appear  in  the  pres- 


312  "  SITTETH   AT   THE    EIGHT   HAI^D    OF   GOD." 

ence  of  God  for  us."  Heb.  ix.  24.  *^But  this  man, 
after  he  had  offered  one  sacrifice  for  sins,  forever  sat 
down  at  the  right  hand  of  God.  From  henceforth  ex- 
pecting till  his  enemies  be  made  his  footstool."  Heb.  x. 
12,  13. 

3.  Again,  Christ  is  thus  exalted  at  the  right  hand  of 
Ood  to  protect  His  Church  and  mndicate  His  people^  and 
complete  their  salvation.  The  Father  gave  him  to  be  the 
Head  over  all  things  to  the  Church.  He  is  a  King  who 
rules  in  the  midst  of  his  enemies.  He  will  maintain  the 
right  of  His  people,  and  powerfully  defend  their  cause 
against  all  their  enemies  ;  for  their  enemies  are  His  ene- 
mies. 

4.  And  is  there  no  terror  in  the  consideration  of  this 
Article  to  the  ungodly  ?  Who  is  this  that  is  seated  in 
glory  ineffable  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Throne  of  God  ? 
Is  it  not  He  whom  the  Jews  rejected,  saying  :  ''We  will 
not  have  this  man  to  reign  over  us?"  But  He  does  not 
now  wear  the  mock  robe  of  royalty,  but  is  clothed  with 
the  majesty  of  the  Eternal  Throne.  The  sceptre  in  his 
hand  is  no  reed,  but  the  rod  of  His  Power,  with  which 
He  keeps  the  universe  in  awe.  Yain  are  the  efforts  of 
men  and  devils  to  keep  Christ  from  reigning.  "  He  that 
sitteth  in  the  heavens  shall  laugh  ;  the  Lord  shall  have 
them  in  derision."  In  spite  of  the  feeble  rage  of  the 
ungodly,  and  the  fury  of  demons,  our  Jesus  reigns  still, 
and  shall  reign  forever.  He  shall  put  down  all  rule,  all 
authority  and  power,  and  bring  every  thing  into  subjec- 
tion. And  with  Him  His  Church  is  exalted  and  reigns  in 
spite  of  all  her  foes. 

'*  Superior  to  their  rage  in  every  form, 
Treads  on  the  clouds,  contemns  the  bursting  storm; 
Hears  tempests  rush,  and  dreadful  thunders  roll, 
With  smiling  count'nance,  with  undaunted  souL" 


SECURITY    WITH   CHRIST.  313 

Let  the  potsherd  of  the  earth  strive  with  the  pot- 
sherds of  the  earth,  but  woe  unto  him  that  striveth  with 
his  Maker.  However  rich  or  poAverful  his  adversaries 
may  be,  Jehovah  will  break  them  in  pieces  like  a  potter's 
vessel.  He  will  beat  them  like  dust  before  the  wind, 
and  reduce  them  to  powder  like  the  mire  of  the  streets. 
''  Serve  the  Lord  with  fear,  and  rejoice  with  trembling. 
Kiss  the  Son,  lest  He  be  angry,  and  ye  perish  from  the 
way,  when  his  wrath  is  kindled  but  a  little." 

Are  you  indeed,  my  dear  brethren,  subjects  of  such  a 
King  ?  Are  you  followers  of  the  Lord  Jesus  1  With 
what  fervor,  then,  should  you  adore  Him  !  How  earnest- 
ly should  you  serve  Him !  What  is  there  on  earth, 
among  all  its  joys,  honors,  or  pursuits  to  be  compared  to 
the  riches  of  the  glory  of  the  inheritance  of  His  saints  ? 
Are  you,  then,  living  for  His  glory  ?  Are  you  praying 
and  laboring  that  His  kingdom  may  come?  Are  you 
toiling  in  anticipation  of  that  unfading  crown  of  glory 
which  He  will  put  on  your  heads,  and  which  is  to  encir- 
cle them  forever  ?  May  you  be  faithful  unto  death,  and 
enter  into  life  eternal.     Amen. 


314  CHRIST   COMING   TO   THE   LAST   JUDGMENT. 


XV. 


CHRIST  COMING  TO  THE   LAST  JUDGMENT. 


"  Which  also  said,  Ye  men  of  Galilee,  why  stand  ye  gazing  up  into  heaven  ? 
this  samo  Jesus,  which  is  taken  up  from  you  into  heaven,  shall  so  come  in  like 
manner  as  ye  have  seen  him  go  into  heaven." — Acts  i.  11. 

"  But  I  would  not  have  you  to  be  ignorant,  brethren,  concerning  them  which 
are  asleep,  that  ye  sorrow  not,  even  as  others  which  have  no  hope.  For  if  we 
believe  that  Jesus  died  and  rose  again,  even  so  them  also  which  sleep  in  Jesus 
will  God  bring  with  him.  For  this  we  say  unto  you  by  the  word  of  the  Lord, 
that  we  which  are  alive  and  remain  unto  the  coming  of  the  Lord  shall  not  pre- 
vent them  which  are  asleep.  For  the  Lord  himself  shall  descend  from  heaven 
with  a  shout,  with  the  voice  of  the  archangel,  and  with  the  trump  of  God :  and 
the  dead  in  Christ  shall  rise  first :  then  we  which  are  live  and  remain  shall  be 
caught  up  together  with  them  in  the  clouds,  to  meet  the  Lord  in  the  air :  and  so 
shall  we  ever  be  with  the  Lord.  Wherefore,  comfort  one  another  with  these 
words." — 1  Thess.  iv.  13-18. 

Last  Sabbath  eyening  we  saw  God's  only  Son,  our 
Lord  Jesus,  sitting  on  the  right  hand  of  God  the  Father 
Almighty,  as  Lord  and  Christ,  exalted  with  the  right 
hand  of  God  to  be  a  Prince  and  a  Saviour,  on  the  throne 
above  all  angels,  principalities,  and  powers  of  the  present 
age,  and  of  all  ages  to  come.  Ruler  and  Judge  Supreme 
over  all  things  to  His  Church.  We  have  now  to  consider 
the  senenth  Article  of  our  Creed,  which  embodies  the 
declaration  of  the  two  angels  to  the  disciples  as  they  wit- 
nessed our  Lord's  ascension.     The  w^ords  of  the  Creed 


CHRIST   COMma   IN   JUDGMENT.  315 

are  :  ^'  From  thence  He  shall  come  to  judge  the  quick  and 
the  dead  ;"  or,  as  it  is  expressed  in  the  fourth  Article  of 
the  Church  of  England:  ''And  there  sitteth  until  He 
return  to  judge  all  men  at  the  last  day."  Our  subject, 
then,  is  Christ  coming  to  sit  in  the  judgment  of 

QUICK    AND   DEAD     AT    THE    LAST     DAY.        Alld    may   the 

spirit  of  Almighty  wisdom  and  grace  assist  us  to  make  a 
profitable  use  of  tins  doctrine. 

This  is  the  last  of  those  particular  characters  ascribed 
in  the  Creed  to  our  Lord  Jesus.  The  whole  of  the  Arti- 
cle, if  fully  expressed,  would  read  in  this  way :  "And  I 
believe  in  Jesus  Christ  his  only  Son,  our  Lord,  who  was 
conceived  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary, 
suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate,  was  crucified,  dead  and 
buried  :  and  I  believe  that  He  descended  into  hell,  and 
that  He  rose  again  the  third  day  from  the  dead,  and  that 
He  ascended  into  heaven,  and  there  sitteth  on  the  right 
hand  of  God  the  Father  Almighty ;  and  1  believe  that 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  now  sitteth  in  his  perfect 
human  nature  on  the  right  hand  of  God,  shall  come 
'  with  glory '  to  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead  ;  and  that 
'his  kingdom  shall  have  no  end.'  "  You  see,  brethren, 
how  large  a  portion  of  the  Creed  is  employed  in  express- 
ing what  we  are  to  believe  concerning  the  Lord  Jesus. 
If  the  Creed  be  printed  in  fourteen  lines,  nine  of  the 
fourteen  are  required  to  express  our  belief  in  Jesus ;  and 
of  course  the  same  proportion  will  obtain  in  whatever 
sized  type  it  may  be  printed.  This  may  remind  us  that 
our  faith  in  Jesus  is  to  be  regarded  as  of  special  conse- 
quence, both  as  to  our  own  souls  and  as  to  our  influence 
on  others. 

The  points  of  this  Article  are  four  in  number  :  First 
That  Christ  shall  come  again,  that  is,  to  this  world. 
Second.  That  He  shall  come  from  the  highest  heaven 


316  CHRIST   COMING   TO   THE   LAST   JUDGMENT. 

into  which  He  ascended  when  He  left  this  world. 
Third.  The  end  of  his  coming  is  to  judge;  and, 
FourtJily.  The  objects  or  persons  to  be  judged  are  tJie 
quicJc  and  tlie  dead.  The  Article  relates  to  Christ  in 
His  person  and  office  as  Mediator  and  King,  and  implies 
the  presence  of  the  same  human  body  in  which  He 
ascended.  It  declares  His  coming^  the  place  from  which 
He  shall  come,  the  end  of  his  coming,  and  the  parties  to 
be  judged  by  him.  There  is  no  essential  variation  in 
the  old  copies  or  draughts  of  this  Article  of  the  Creed. 
In  some  of  them  it  is  read  from  thence,  and  in  some 
from  whence,  and  in  some  simply,  He  will  come,  and  in 
some  from  thence  or  from  whence  He  shall  come  is  all 
left  out,  and  we  have  only :  He  shall  judge  the  quick 
and  the  dead. 

The  other  words,  however,  when  omitted  are  left 
out  not  because  they  are  not  supposed  to  be  true,  but 
because  they  are  thought  to  be  unnecessary,  being  implied 
in  the  other  clause.  For  if  Christ  is  to  judge  the  quick 
and  the  dead,  it  is  implied  He  will  come  again  from 
heaven  to  this  world.  In  choosing  words  to  constitute  an 
articulated  faith,  it  is  better,  however,  not  to  leave  any 
thing  to  be  implied  that  can  b}^  any  possibility  be  mis- 
construed. The  Article,  therefore,  is  to  be  received  as 
we  have  it.  Nor  are  the  reasons  for  our  holding  it  as  a 
part  of  our  faith  essentially  different  from  those  that 
caused  it  at  first  to  be  adopted.  In  the  early  ages  of 
Christianity,  the  chief  difficulties  in  the  Church  as  to 
Articles  of  Faith  related  to  our  Lord's  human  nature. 
And  hence  the  fulness  and  earnestness  of  the  large  part  of 
the  Creed  that  speaks  of  Christ.  The  same  teachers  and 
sects  for  the  most  part  who  held  erroneous  views  con- 
cerning our  Lord's  human  nature,  also  denied  a  future 
judgment.     The  bearing  of  the  ancient  Creeds  is  very 


cheist's  kingdom  endless.  317 

clear  on  the  Incarnation.  And  in  them  the  sitting  of  Jesus 
on  the  right  liand  of  God  in  his  human  nature  is  connected 
immediately  with  his  coming  from  thence  to  judge  the 
world.  This  was  designed  to  condemn  the  idea  of  Sabel- 
lius,  that  the  Son  was  merely  an  emanation  from  the 
Father,  without  personal  subsistence,  put  forth  for  a  time 
and  then  reabsorbed  when  his  mission  was  achieved. 
Particularly  was  this  the  purpose  of  the  clause  added  in 
the  Nicene  Creed:  ''And  whose  kingdom  shall  have 
no  end."  When  the  work  of  redeeming  our  race  is  com- 
plete, the  exercise  of  the  Kedeemer'  s  office  will  cease,  but 
not  his  kingdom  of  glory,  for  from  all  eternity  the  decree 
had  gone  forth  in  behalf  of  God's  own  Son,  "  Thy  throne, 
O  God,  is  forever  and  ever."  For  when  the  kingdoms 
of  this  world  become  the  kingdoms  of  the  Lord  and  of 
his  Christ,  He  shall  reign  forever  and  ever. 

Some,  as  the  Manicheans,  it  is  believed  denied  both  the 
resurrection  and  the  future  judgment.  The  Marcionites 
and  other  Gnostics  also  denied  the  future  general  judg- 
ment, on  the  ground  that  God  was  so  full  of  grace  and 
mercy,  that  there  was  no  necessity  for  the  general  judg- 
ment, for  God  regarded  all  human  actions  with  indif- 
ference. Men  were  insignificant  in  his  sight.  Now  even 
a  limited  acquaintance  with  the  literature  of  our  day  is 
quite  sufficient  to  show  that  similar  views  are  prevalent 
among  us.  The  Swedenborgians,  after  their  founder, 
generally  hold  that  the  passages  of  Scripture  which  speak 
of  the  judgment  day  are  not  to  be  literally  interpreted, 
but  are  used  as  metaphors  or  figures  of  speech.  The 
idea  of  Swedenborg  probably  was,  that  men  are  a  kind 
of  waif,  subject  to  two  opposite  influences,  one  from  God 
and  good  spirits,  and  the  other  from  evil  angels,  and  as 
they  yielded  to  one  or  the  other,  the  soul  was  good  and 
rose,  or  was  bad  and  fell.     Consequently  heaven  and 


318        CHRIST  coMma  to  the  last  judgment. 

hell  are  not  to  be  regarded  as  places,  or  as  the  result  of 
a  Divine  appointment,  but  as  the  necessary  conditions  or 
status  of  the  man  himself,  according  as  he  is  good  or 
evil.*  Another  reason  for  the  use  of  this  Article  was  to 
express  the  faith  of  the  Church  in  the  continuance  of  our 
Lord's  kingdom,  and  the  eternity  of  the  union  between 
liis  Divinity  and  humanity — two  perfect  natures  in  one 
person  forever.  Origen  taught  that  the  kingdom  of 
Christ,  after  many  ages,  should  end.  And  MarceUus  of 
Ancyra  thought  that  the  office  of  King  was  committed 
temporarily  to  our  Lord,  and  consequently  that  his  kingly 
office  would  cease  and  his  human  nature  come  to  nothing. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  Scriptures  teach  that  His  kingdom 
shall  have  no  end.  The  present  forms  of  His  kingdom 
of  power  and  of  grace  will  cease,  but  the  kingdom  of 
his  glory  shall  have  no  end.  It  shall  last  forever.  This 
Article  therefore  teaches  the  eternity  of  the  mysterious 
Incarnation.  It  asserts  that  Christ  as  man  shall  reign 
forever.  On  this  point  we  may  well  adopt  the  words  of 
Chrysostom,  saying:  ''We  wonder  at  the  awful  and 
ineffable  nature  of  this  mystery.  Our  Lord  put  on  oui 
flesh,  not  to  lay  it  aside  again,  but  to  have  it  ever  with 
Himself.  He  inhabits  his  human  tabernacle  forever. 
Otherwise  He  would  not  have  deemed  it  worthy  of  the 
royal  Throne,  nor  would  He  have  been  adored,  wearing  it, 
by  all  the  heavenly  host  of  angels,  archangels,  thrones, 
dominions,  principalities,  and  powers.' 'f 

There  are  two  additions  in  the  Mcene  Creed  as  adopt- 
ed by  the  Fathers  of  Constantinople,  namely,  the  words 
''with  glory :"  "and  he  shall  come  again  with  glory,  to 
judge  both  the  quick  and  the  dead :"  and  also  the  words  : 


♦  See  Bishop  Browne,  p.  101.    f  Forbes,  250. 


THE  THREE  GREAT  CREEDS.  319 

"whose  kingdom  shall  have  no  end."  The  texts  of  Holy 
Scripture  brought  forward  in  the  preceding  Discourses  in 
proof  of  our  Lord' s  ascension,  and  sitting  on  the  right  hand 
of  God  as  Christ  in  human  nature,*  all  imply  the  doctrine 
that  Christ  will  come  to  judge  the  world.  Several  of 
them  expressly  affirm  it.  Paul^  in  his  celebrated  discourse 
on  Mars  hill,  declares,  that  ''God  now  commandeth  all 
men  everywhere  to  repent :  Because  he  hath  appointed 
a  day  in  which  He  will  judge  the  world  in  righteousness 
by  that  man  whom  He  hath  ordained ,  whereof  he  hath 
given  assurance  unto  all  men,  in  that  He  hath  raised  him 
from  the  dead."  Acts.  xvii.  30.  It  will  not  then  seem 
out  of  place,  or  useless,  I  hope,  to  have  alluded  thus 
briefly  to  the  crude  conceits  and  unscriptural  opinions 
that  are  denied  and  refuted  in  the  Creed,  for  by  so  doing 
we  see  how  error  has  promoted  truth.  If  such  errors  had 
not  arisen,  we  should  not  have  had  such  accurate  state- 
ments of  the  truth  in  the  early  formulas  of  the  Church. 
When  dangers  were  discovered,  then  the  Church  was 
obliged  to  define  and  protect  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus. 
And  it  is  wonderful  to  see  how  the  three  great  Creeds — 
the  Apostles'  Creed,  the  Nicene,  and  the  Athanasian,  are 
devoted  to  the  full  and  accurate  statement  of  what  was 
believed  concerning  the  two  natures  of  Christ,  God  and 
man,  intimately  united,  yet  not  confounded,  and  to  re- 
main ''in  two  distinct  natures,  but  one  person  forever." 
— Catechism.  Athanasius,  in  a.  d.  365,  declares  that 
all  the  Churches  in  the  world,  whether  in  Europe,  Asia, 
or  Africa,  approved  of  the  Mcene  faith,  except  a  few 
persons  who  followed  Arius.f  The  great  value  of  these 
old  Creeds  consists  in  the  way  they  guard  and  set  forth 


*  Deus  et  Homo  unus  est  Christus. — Athanasian  Creed. 
f  See  his  Epist.  ad  Jovian,  torn.  1,  p.  246. 


320  CUEIST   COMING    TO   THE   LAST   JUDGMEI^TT. 

the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  and  of  the  Incarnation.  The 
ancient  subtleties  and  monstrous  errors  of  the  early  ages 
may  not  be  revived  again,  but  doctrines  quite  as  blas- 
phemous and  damaging  are  held  and  taught  among  us. 
In  fact,  on  this  subject  it  is  particularly  to  be  noted,  that 
there  is  but  little  that  is  new. 

The  departures  from  the  faith  of  God's  elect  that 
grieve  us  now  are  for  the  most  part  similar  to,  or  iden- 
tical with,  those  that  tried  the  Church  in  past  ages,  even 
from  the  days  of  the  Apostles  themselves.  And  a  knowl- 
edge of  these  facts  should  strengthen  our  faith  and  com- 
fort us,  for  they  prove  that  there  has  always  been  a 
faithful  body  of  believers,  who  have  held  to  the  truth 
essentially  as  it  is  in  Jesus.  And  if  the  errors  and  awful 
apostasies  and  moral  degeneracy  of  past  ages  have  not 
destroyed  the  Kingdom  of  God,  we  need  not  fear  that  the 
gates  of  hell  will  prevail  against  it  now.  The  existence  of 
the  Church  of  Christ,  with  the  purity  and  power  that  it 
now  has,  in  the  midst  of  and  in  spite  of  the  corruption, 
apostasy,  and  unfaithfulness  of  its  members,  is  a  strong 
argument  for  the  Divinity  of  the  Gospel. 

It  is  not  without  special  significance  that  the  Apostle, 
in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  speaks  of  the  necessity  of 
considering  the  doctrine  of  Eternal  Judgment  as  among 
the  first  and  great  principles  of  the  doctrines  of  Christ. 
Therefore,  leaving  the  principles  of  the  doctrines  of  Christ, 
let  us  go  on  unto  perfection  ;  ''not  laying  again  the  founda- 
tion of  repentance  from  dead  works,  and  of  faith  toward 
God,  of  the  doctrine  of  baptisms,  and  of  laying  on  of 
hands,  and  of  resurrection  of  the  dead,  and  of  eternal 
judgment."     Heb.  vi.  1,  2. 

Here  it  is  clearly  seen  :  1.  That  the  Apostle  thought 
there  were  signs  of  departing  from  the  faith  of  the  Gospel 


PAUL    ON   ETERI^AL    JUDGMEOT?.  321 

in  fundamental  doctrines  even  in  his  day,  and  hence  his 
exhortation  not  to  fail  or  go  back  from  the  doctrine  of 
Christ. 

2.  Eternal  judgment  is  one  of  the  fundamental  doc- 
trines which  the  ungodly  in  his  day  denied,  as  also  in  our 
times,  and  as,  in  fact,  they  are  always  desirous  of  deny- 
ing and  getting  rid  of. 

3.  It  is  well  to  observe  here  also  the  connection  in 
which  this  doctrine  is  spol^en  of^'^and  of  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  dead,  and  of  eternal  judgment." — And 

4.  This  doctrine  of  eternal  judgment  is  here  enumer- 
ated among  the  fundamental  principles  which  lie  at  the 
very  foundation  of  all  godliness — ''the  foundation  of 
repentance  from  dead  works,  and  of  faith  toward  God." 

According  to  the  standards  of  our  holy  religion,  we  do 
most  certainly  believe  that 

**I.  The  bodies  of  men,  after  death,  return  to  dust,  and 
see  corruption  ;  but  their  souls  (which  neither  die  nor 
sleep),  having  an  immortal  subsistence,  immediately  return 
to  God  who  gave  them.  The  souls  of  the  righteous, 
being  then  made  perfect  in  holiness,  are  received  into  the 
highest  heavens,  where  they  behold  the  face  of  God  in 
light  and  glory,  waiting  for  the  full  redemption  of  their 
bodies  ;  and  the  souls  of  the  wicked  are  cast  into  hell, 
where  they  remain  in  torments  and  utter  darkness,  re- 
served to  the  judgment  of  the  great  day.  Besides  these 
two  places  for  souls  separated  from  their  bodies,  the 
Scripture  acknowledgeth  none. 

"II.  At  the  last  day,  such  as  are  found  alive  shall  not 
die,  but  be  changed  :  and  all  the  dead  shall  be  raised  up- 

21 


322        CHRIST  COMING  to  the  last  judgment. 

with  the  self-same  bodies,  and  none  other,  although  with 
different  qualities,  which  shall  be  united  again  to  their 
souls  forever. 

*'  III.  The  bodies  of  the  unjust  shall,  by  the  power  of 
Christ,  be  raised  to  dishonor  ;  the  bodies  of  the  just,  by 
his  Spirit,  unto  honor  and  be  made  conformable  to  his 
own  glorious  body." 

And  the  next  chapter  ^^  of  the  last  judgment ^^''  says  : 

''  I.  God  hath  appointed  a  day,  wherein  he  will  judge 
the  world  in  righteousness  by  Jesus  Christ,  to  whom  all 
power  and  judgment  is  given  of  the  Father.  In  which 
day,  not  only  the  apostate  angels  shall  be  judged,  but 
likewise  all  persons  that  have  lived  upon  earth  shall 
appear  before  the  tribunal  of  Christ,  to  give  an  account 
of  their  thoughts,  words,  and  deeds ;  and  to  receive 
according  to  what  the}^  have  done  in  the  body,  whether 
good  or  evil. 

' '  II.  The  end  of  God' s  appointing  this  day  is  for  the 
manifestation  of  the  glory  of  his  mercy  in  the  eternal  sal- 
vation of  the  elect ;  and  of  his  justice  in  the  damnation 
of  the  reprobate,  who  are  wicked  and  disobedient.  For 
then  shall  the  righteous  go  into  everlasting  life,  and 
receive  that  fulness  of  joy  and  refreshing  which  shall 
come  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord  :  but  the  wicked, 
who  know  not  God,  and  obey  not  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ,  shall  be  cast  into  eternal  torments,  and  be  punished 
with  everlasting  destruction  from  the  presence  of  the 
Lord,  and  from  the  glory  of  his  power. 

*'  III.  As  Christ  would  have  us  to  be  certainly  persuad- 
ed that  there  shall  be  a  day  of  judgment,  both  to  deter  all 
men  from  sin,  and  for  the  greater  consolation  of  the  godly 


THE  PLACE  OF  THE  JUDGMENT.         323 

in  their  adversity  :  so  will  he  have  that  day  unknown  to 
men,  that  they  may  shake  off  all  carnal  security,  and  be 
always  watchful,  because  they  know  not  at  what  hour 
the  Lord  will  come,  and  may  be  ever  prepared  to  say, 
Come,  Lord  Jesus,  come  quickly.  Amen."  [Chapters 
xxxii.  and  xxxiii.  of  Confession  of  Faith,'\ 

By  the  day  of  the  future  general  judgment  is  under- 
stood the  important  day  which  is  the  last  day  of  the  pres- 
ent economy,  or  dispensation  of  grace,  the  day  when  the 
eternal  state  of  all  men  will  be  unchangeably  fixed.  It  is 
the  day  on  which  Christ  shall  come  to  judge  the  quick 
and  the  dead,  and  we  believe  in  this  doctrine  of  our  holy 
faith,  not  only  because  we  are  personally  concerned  in 
it,  but  also  because  it  is  the  last  act  of  the  Mediatorial 
reign  of  Christ,  "the  brightest  manifestation  of  his  divine 
glory,  the  anchor  of  Christian  hope,  a  powerful  antidote 
against  carnal  security,  a  check  to  raging  lusts,  and  an 
incentive  to  conscientious  piety." — Witsius, 

I.  In  the  order  I  propose  to  follow,  our  first  inquiry  is 
as  to  the  place  where  Christ  is  to  judge  the  world. 
*'From  thence  He  shall  come."  But  to  what  place  will 
He  come  ? 

Where  is  this  general  judgment  to  take  place  1  The 
general  Scriptural  designation  is,  in  the  air  or  in  the 
clouds.     1  Thess.  iv.  16 ;  Matt.  xxiv.  30. 

1.  Perhaps  this  is  the  best  place,  in  order  to  fill  the 
Apostle's  declaration  that  every  eye  shall  see  him.  As 
if  the  clouds  were  to  form  a  vast  amphitheatre  for  this 
day,  '^the  day  for  which  all  other  days  were  made." 

2.  It  is  a  favorite  scriptural  representation  to  speak  of 
the  clouds  as  God's  chariot,  or  as  his  royal  Throne.  The 
law  was  given  in  clouds.    The  Son  of  God  dwelt  in  the 


324  CHRIST   COMING   TO   THE   LAST  JUDGMENT. 

pillar  of  cloud  by  day,  and  unveiled  enough  of  his  glory 
by  night  to  make  it  a  pillar  of  fire.  He  ascended  in  a 
cloud,  and  He  will  come  again  in  like  manner. 

Those  who  are  not  content  with  a  cloud-formed 
amphitheatre  for  the  scene  of  the  judgment,  in  a  general 
way,  have  endeavored  to  prove  that  the  words  of  the 
two  angels  to  the  disciples,  on  the  Mount  of  Olives, 
when  the  Saviour  ascended  into  heaven,  mean  that  He  is 
to  come  in  the  same  place — that  all  men  are  to  be 
assembled  for  the  last  judgment  in  the  Valley  of 
Jehoshaphat,  which  lies  below  the  Mount  of  Olives,  from 
which  our  Lord  ascended. 

It  is  alleged  that  Christ  should  display  the  Majesty 
of  his  glory  in  view  of  Calvary,  where  He  suffered  the 
ignominy  of  the  Cross,  and  that  He  should  judge  where 
He  himself  was  judged.  This  idea  is  held  by  many,  in 
both  Papal  and  Protestant  churches.  Even  Mohamme- 
dans have  adopted  the  idea  also,  that  the  scene  of  the 
last  judgment  is  to  be  over  Jerusalem.  There  are  many 
conceits  about  this,  as  well  as  about  the  holy  city  itself, 
that  I  do  not  think  worthy  of  foimal  statement  or  refuta- 
tion. I  do  not  think  the  words  of  the  angels,  on  any  fair 
rule  of  interpretation,  can  be  applied  to  the  place^  but 
to  the  manner  of  Christ's  coming.  Nor  is  it  at  all  clear 
from  the  best  interpretation  we  can  get  of  Joel's 
prophecy,  which  is  generally  applied  to  this  subject,  that 
he  had  any  such  meaning  in  his  mind.  On  the  contrary, 
it  is  clear  that  Joel  is  not  speaking  of  the  last  judgment 
at  all,  but  of  a  day  of  vengeance  on  Messiah's  enemies 
previous  to  it.  Our  conclusion  therefore  is,  that  the 
place  will  be  in  the  air  or  on  the  earth,  then  a  part  of  the 
new  heavens  and  new  earth.  To  fix  the  place,  however,  is 
of  little  consequence.  For  the  fact  that  Grod  has  appointed 
such  a    general   judgment,   according  to  the  Bible,  is. 


THE   TIME    OF   THE   JUDGMENT.  825 

certain,  and  it  will  be  righteous^  universal,  decisive,  and 
eternal  as  to  its  consequences. 

II.  Our  second  inquiry  is  as  to  The  Time  when  Christ 
is  to  come  to  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead. 

1.  God  has  fixed  a  day — a  certain,  determinate  day — 
hy  which  we  are  to  understand  a  fixed  period,  without 
determining  how  many  hours  are  to  be  occupied  with 
the  proceedings. 

2.  The  precise  period  in  the  chronicles  or  epochs  of 
time. when  this  day  shall  be  is  not  revealed  to  us.  And 
as  we  understand  our  Lord,  we  are  even  forbidden  to 
exercise  our  curiosity  about  it.  The  angels  of  heaven 
do  not  know  when  it  is  to  be.  Paul  could  not  write 
about  it.  Even  the  inspired  Apostles,  who  were  guided 
to  Avrite  on  other  subjects  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  were  left  in 
darkness  as  to  the  time  of  our  Lord's  appearing  to  judge 
the  world.  It  is  not  strange,  then,  if  men  will  indulge 
their  own  inventions  on  such  a  subject,  that  they  shall 
write  many  absurd  and  wicked  follies  about  it.  God 
has  concealed  it  from  us  to  try  our  faith  and  obedience, 
and  teach  us  to  watch  and  be  always  ready. 

3.  It  is  called  the  last  day  of  the  world.  It  will  be 
preceded  by  the  resurrection  of  the  dead.  It  is  always 
spoken  of  in  such  a  way  as  to  imply,  even  when  it  is  not 
so  expressed  in  words,  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  and 
the  end  of  the  present  economy,  and  the  beginning  of  the 
eternal  and  unchangeable  state  of  all  men  of  Adam's  race. 
The  term  last  day  does  not  of  necessity  imply  the  annihila- 
tion of  our  solar  system  or  of  our  solar  globe  itself.  Time 
may  go  on.  The  planets  still  occupy  their  orbits.  This 
globe,  being  purified  as  by  fire,  may  be  the  abode  of  happy 
beings  forever.     But  the  last  day  means  the  end  of  the 


326  CHEIST   COMING   TO   THE   LAST   JUDGMENT. 

present  dispensation — the  winding  up  of  the  Mediatorial 
economy  in  regard  to  our  race.  It  is  nonsense,  however, 
for  unbelievers  to  argue  that  the  Scriptures  teach  the  lite- 
ral consuming  and  end  of  the  world  by  fire,  and  then  to 
argue  that  the  Scriptures  are  in  error,  for  that  science — 
astronomy  and  geology,  for  instance — teach  us  there  can 
be  no  such  thing  ;  for  we  have  the  most  palpable  evidence 
of  fearful  convulsions  having  taken  place  in  our  planet 
already,  and  that  we  embody  within  ourselves  elements 
quite  sufficient  to  rend  us  all  to  pieces,  and  to  burn  us  to 
cinders.  We  know,  astronomically,  that  other  bodies  in 
the  solar  system  have  been  torn  to  pieces.  Why  may  not 
the  earth  in  like  manner  be  multiplied  into  a  small  system 
of  asteroids  1  There  is  nothing  in  true  science,  as  yet 
developed,  to  contradict  the  sacred  writers,  even  if  they 
taught  that  this  earth  is  to  be  literally  consumed  by  fire. 
Many  learned  and  able  theologians  so  understand  the 
Word  of  God.  But  this  is  a  point,  like  the  duration  of 
our  present  dispensation,  that  does  not  seem  to  us  to  be 
revealed.  I  find  nothing  in  the  Bible  that  authorizes  us 
to  say  when  the  end  of  the  world  is  to  be,  nor  any  thing 
that  requires  us  to  believe  that  the  end  of  the  world  lite- 
rally means  the  destruction  of  our  solar  system.  On  the 
contrary,  all  that  I  understand  by  it  is  its  purification. 

III.  In  the  third  place,  who  is  to  preside  in  the  judg- 
ment of  the  world?  ''From  thence  He  shall  come  to 
judge  the  quick  and  the  dead." 

1.  The  Scriptures  teach  that  the  Triune  God  will  be  the 
Judge  of  all  men.  Solomon  says,  "Know  thou,  that  for 
all  these  things  God  will  bring  thee  into  judgment,"  and 
"  God  will  bring  every  work  into  judgment."  The 
Apostle  Paul  also  speaks  of  the  "day  of  wrath  and  revela- 
tion of  the  righteous  judgment  of  God,"  and  of  "  God  the 


JESUS   IS   THE   JUDGE.  327 

Judge  of  all."  These  texts  represent  God  as  the  Creator, 
Lawgiver,  and  Supreme  Governor  of  the  Universe,  and 
as  having,  therefore,  the  power  and  the  right,  and  in  fact 
l^eing  under  obligations  to  take  cognizance  of  the  actions 
of  his  creatures,  who  are  his  subjects,  and  to  reward  or 
punish  them  according  to  their  conduct,  rendering  to 
every  man  according  to  his  deeds  done  in  the  body, 
whether  good  or  bad. 

2.  It  is,  however,  clearly  revealed  in  the  Scriptures, 
that  it  is  the  settled  economy  between  the  Persons  of  the 
Godhead,  that  Messiah,  who  is  the  God-man,  the  Media- 
tor between  God  and  men,  is  to  be  the  Judge.  This  is  a 
part  of  the  official  duty  of  the  Messiah  promised  to  the 
Jewish  Church.  The  pious  Israelites  looked  for  a  Mes- 
siah who  is  described  as  "judging  and  seeking  judgment, 
and  hasting  righteousness."  As  the  anointed  King  over 
Zion,  we  may  apply  to  him  the  words  of  the  Prophet : 
"  The  Lord  is  our  Judge,  the  Lord  is  our  Lawgiver,  the 
Lord  is  our  King  :  He  will  save  us."  Isa.  xxxiii.  22. 
Nor  is  it  without  good  reasons  that  the  Chaldee  paraphrast 
renders  the  72d  Psalm  with  direct  reference  to  Christ : 
''Give  the  King  thy  judgments,  0  God,  and  thy  right- 
eousness unto  the  King's  Son."  That  is,  according  to  the 
Chaldee  comment,  to  King  Messiah,  who  is  King  David's 
Son.  Nor  should  it  be  forgotten  that  literally  in  the  his- 
tory of  our  Lord's  trial,  we  have  the  exact  fulfilment  of 
the  propliecy  of  Micah,  v.  1 :  "  They  shall  smite  the 
Judge  of  Israel  with  a  rod  upon  the  cheek, " 

And  our  Lord  spoke  plainly  on  this  subject :  ''  The 
Father  judgeth  no  man,  but  hath  committed  all  judgment 
to  the  Son."  John  v.  22  ;  Matt,  xxv.,  xxvi.  ;  Acts  xvii. 
31 ;  Kom.  ii.  16 ;  Rev.  xx.  12. 


[s,  God  has  appointed  a  day 

;UHIVER:irY] 


328  CHEIST   COMmG   TO    THE   LAST   JUDGMENT. 

to  judge  the  world,  and  He  hath  ordained  that  the  judg- 
ment shall  be  by  that  man  Christ  Jesus  ;  and  Peter  says, 
God  hath  commanded  us  to  preach  unto  the  peoplej  and 
to  testify  that  it  is  He,  which  was  ordained  of  God  to  be 
the  judge  of  quick  and  dead.  And  accordingly  it  is 
declared  in  another  place  of  Holy  Scripture,  that  it  is 
before  the  judgment  seat  of  Chkist  that  we  must  all 
appear.     2.  Cor.  v.  10. 

''  He  shall  come  as  a  Judge,  who  once  stood  before  the 
Judge.  He  shall  come  in  that  form  in  which  He  was 
judged,  that  they  may  see  Him  who  pierced  him,  and 
that  they  who  received  Him  not  may  then  know  Him."* 

3.  It  is  true  also  that  our  Saviour  said,  according  to  the 
passage  in  John  viii.  15 — 50:  ''I  judge  no  man:  and 
there  is  one  that  seeketh  and  judgeth,  that  is  the  Father." 

But  a  little  candor  and  reflection  will  relieve  these 
places  from  any  contradiction.  The  meaning  is  :  1.  That 
the  Father  judgeth  no  man  in  a  visible  form.  The 
embodiment  of  the  Godhead  is  in  the  Second  Person,  as 
developed  or  manifested  to  man.  2.  The  meaning  is, 
there  is  a  perfect  harmony  and  oneness  of  mind  between 
the  Father  and  the  Son.  The  judgment  is  not  held  sepa- 
rately by  either.  And,  3.  The  meaning  is,  that  as  the 
work  of  redemption  has  been  executed  by  God's  Son — 
as  He  is  the  Mediator— as  He  was  born  of  a  woman, 
suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate,  was  crucified,  dead  and 
buried,  rose  again  from  the  dead,  and  ascended  into 
heaven,  and  sitteth  on  the  right  hand  of  God,  to  reign  as 
King  and  Head  over  all  things  to  His  Church,  so  it  is  a 
part  of  his  kingly  office  to  preside  in  the  general  judg- 
ment.    This  is  the  meaning  of  the  Apostle' s  words,  when 

*  Augustine. 


WHY   JESUS   IS   THE   JUDGE.  329 

he  declares  that  God  will  judge  the  world  in  righteous- 
ness by  that  man  whom  He  had  ordained.  Acts  xvii.  31. 
'^And  God  shall  judge  the  secrets  of  men  by  Jesus 
Christ."     Rom.  ii.  16. 

When  therefore  we  hear  our  Lord  saying,  *'I  judge 
no  man,"  the  meaning  is,  I  am  not  sent  as  Moses  was.  I 
have  not  come  as  a  minister  of  wrath  to  condemn  the 
world.  "  God  sent  not  His  Son  into  the  world  to  con- 
demn the  world,  but  that  the  world  through  Him  might 
be  saved."     John  iii.  17. 

Clearly  also  our  Lord  means,  that  He  will  not  judge 
separately  from  the  Father.  '^' And  yet,"  says  He,  ''if  I 
judge,  my  judgment  is  true,  for  I  am  not  alone,  but  I  and 
the  Father  that  sent  me."  "  The  Son  is  come  in  the  name 
of  the  Father,  nor  can  He  do  any  thing  of  himself, 
but  what  He  seeth  the  Father  do."  ''I  do  nothing  of 
myself ;  but  as  my  Father  hath  taught  me,  I  speak  these 
things."  John  viii.  28.  ''And  hath  given  Him  authority 
to  execute  judgment  also,  because  He  is  the  Son  of  Man."  ^ 
John  V.  27. 

The  reasoning  of  Augustine,  in  his  sixty-fourth 
sermon  on  these  passages,  and  in  explanation  of  the 
economy  of  the  judgment  by  the  Son,  is  very  much  to  my 
mind.  It  is  to  this  effect.  That  as  the  Son  of  God  became 
the  Son  of  Man,  and  by  His  humiliation,  obedience,  and 
sufferings  in  human  nature,  and  by  His  sacrifice  of  him- 
self satisfied  Divine  Justice,  so  that  we  may  be  reconciled 
to  God,  so  it  is  eminently  proper  for  Him  as  Mediatorial 
King  to  judge  and  punish  the  enemies  of  His  kingdom. 
And  as  He  submitted  to  be  judged  and  pronounced  guilty 
and  was  put  to  death  by  men,  so  it  is  expedient  that  his 
judges  should  be  judged  and  their  sentences  reversed. 
"  He  who  stood  under  a  judge  will  sit  as  Judge."     *'  He 


330  CHRIST    COMING   TO   THE   LAST   JUDGMENT. 

who  was  himself  falsely  pronounced  guilty,  will  condemn 
the  truly  guilty."  It  is  as  the  Son  of  Man,  to  judge  the 
quick  and  the  dead,  that  He  will  appear  visibly  in  the 
clouds,  and  every  eye  shall  see  Him,  and  they  also  which 
pierced  Him.  Rev.  i,  7.  In  saying  therefore  that  ^'the 
Father  judgeth  no  man,  but  hath  committed  all  judgment 
unto  the  Son  ;  that  all  men  should  honor  the  Son,  eyen  as 
they  honor  the  Father,"  the  meaning  is  that  the  Father  and 
the  Son  are  equal,  and  that  in  the  judgment  of  the  quick 
and  the  dead  no  one  will  see  the  Father ;  but  all  shall 
see  the  Son,  because  He  is  also  the  Son  of  Man,  so  that 
the  wicked  may  see  their  Judge.  ''It  is  right  that  they 
who  are  to  be  judged  should  see  their  Judge."*  But 
oh !  who  can  support  the  dreadful  presence  of  God,  or 
who  may  stand  in  His  sight  ?  Who  can  endure  to  hear  the 
voice  at  which  the  earth  melteth,  and  at  whose  reproofs 
the  pillars  of  heaven  tremble — that  awfal  majesty  before 
which  the  seraphim  hide  their  faces  ?  Is  it  not  then  a 
proof  of  the  condescension  and  mercy  of  God,  that  the 
judgment  of  quick  and  dead  is  assigned  to  the  Son  of 
Man? 

He  shall  come  to  judge — He  who  came  once  before  in 
our  nature — He  who  was  conceived  by  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  in  the  womb  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  born 
of  her — He  who  suffered  so  deeply  for  us,  who  died  to 
redeem  us :  He  shall  come  in  glory  to  judge  the  quick 
and  the  dead. 

In  holding  that  Jesus  Christ,  visible  as  the  God-man, 
is  the  Supreme  Judge  of  all  men  and  angels,  we  are  not 
to  be  understood  as  separating  his  Divine  from  his  human 


*  Rectum  erat  ut  judicandi  viderent  Judicom.     See  also  Augustia  de  Trini. 
lib.  1.  cap.  13. 


TIIE   SON   OF   MAN   THE   JUDGE.  331 

nature.  His  majesty,  power,  wisdom,  and  glory  will 
then  manifest  his  Eternal  Divinity,  but  his  acts  in  judg- 
ing will  be  visible  by  his  human  form.  Consequently 
He  is  the  Judge  in  his  own  right,  and  not  by  a  merely 
delegated  authority.  The  will  as  well  as  the  Deity  of 
Christ  is  the  same  as  the  will  and  Deity  of  the  Father. 
The  exercise  of  the  Divine  perfections,  therefore,  in  judg- 
ing the  world,  is  by  the  authority  of  the  ineffable  God- 
head. Isaiah,  speaking  in  the  name  of  Jehovah,  says: 
^'I  have  sworn  by  myself ;  the  word  is  gone  out  of  my 
mouth  in  righteousness,  and  shall  not  return  ;  that  unto 
me  every  knee  shall  bow,  every  tongue  shall  swear." 
Isa.  xlv.  23.  And  yet  we  find  St.  Paul  applying  these 
very  words  to  our  Lord  Jesus.  As  Judge,  therefore,  the 
Son  of  God  appears  in  his  own  right  and  by  his  own 
authority,  but  makes  himself  manifest  as  the  Son  of  Man. 

Thus  it  is  plain  that  the  quick  and  the  dead  are  to  be 
judged  by  the  Lord  Jesus.  He  has  the  original,  absolute 
right  to  be  judge,  because  as  God  He  is  the  Creator  of  all 
things,  and,  as  Supreme  Lord  and  King  over  the  universe, 
all  things  are  governed  by  him.  It  belongs  to  Him  there- 
fore to  institute  an  inquiry  as  to  the  way  his  laws  have 
been  observed, — to  reward  service  performed,  and  pun- 
ish disobedience.  If  this  is  not  to  be  done,  then,  so  far 
as  His  government  is  concerned,  there  is  no  difference 
between  the  good  and  the  bad.  But  we  know  there  is  a 
difference.  Virtue  is  in  part  its  own  reward,  but  only  in 
part:  vice  is  in  part  its  own  punishment,  but  only  in 
part.  There  must,  therefore,  be  a  final  adjustment.  The 
uneven  scores  that  run  on  so  long  here  must  be  compared 
and  put  together,  and  perfect  justice  rendered.  Hence, 
there  must  be  an  account  given  of  the  talents  bestowed 
upon  us,  and  the  opportunities  granted  to  us  for  doing 
good  and    getting    good.       This  is  everywhere  taught 


332  CHRIST  COMING   TO   THE   LAST   JUDGMENT. 

or  implied  in  the  Word  of  God.  And  as  our  Saviour  is 
thus  qualified  by  his  attributes  to  be  the  final  judge  of 
men  and  angels,  so  also  is  He  placed  in  the  proper  posi- 
tion by  his  office  as  both  Lord  and  Christ.  He  sits  on 
the  right  hand  of  the  Throne  of  God  as  King  over  all 
things  for  his  Church.  He  is  therefore  the  judge  by  his 
Father's  appointment.  The  Apostles  expressly  declared 
He  is  ordained  by  God  the  Father  for  this  very  office. 
Nor  are  there  wanting  even  to  our  limited  apprehensions 
important  reasons  why  the  Father  assigned  the  final 
judgment  to  the  Son.  Does  it  not  prove  that  God  conde- 
scended thus  to  show  us  his  goodness  %  There  must  be  a 
strict  and  impartial  judgment,  says  God,  but  let  my  crea- 
tures see  there  is  no  vindictiveness  in  it.  Let  the  admin- 
istration of  it  be  attempered  by  putting  it  into  the  hands 
of  my  Son,  who  is  also  the  Son  of  Man.  Surely  his  worst 
enemies  cannot  complain  that  He  is  their  judge  when 
they  remember  that  He  is  the  very  same  who  prayed  for 
them  when  He  was  dying,  and  who  shed  his  blood  to 
redeem  sinners.  Nor  will  His  followers  fear  to  meet 
him  face  to  face,  when  they  call  to  mind  that  He  is 
their  brother,  that  He  sits  in  judgment  in  their  own 
nature,  and  remember  how  meek  and  lowly,  mer- 
ciful and  full  of  pity  He  was,  and  that  they  are  to 
meet  him  clothed  in  the  robes  He  has  put  on  them, 
redeemed  and  washed  from  sin  in  his  blood.  And 
besides,  how  better  could  God  the  Father  show  his  crea- 
tures the  greatness  of  his  Justice  than  by  exalting  to  the 
Judgment  Throne  Him  who,  out  of  regard  for  his  Eternal 
Rectitude,  obej^ed  his  will  and  offered  himself  a  sacrifice 
to  satisfy  Divine  Justice  %  Who  better  deserves  this 
crown,  or  can  so  worthily  hold  the  sceptre,  than  He  who 
willingly  submitted  to  the  scourge  and  the  mockery  of 
royalty,  and  bor^  the  Cross  ?  And  how  awfully  will  it 
aggravat  J  our  guilt  to  be  condemned  by  a  Judge  so  mild, 


DO    WE   BELIEVE   THIS   APwTICLE  ?  333 

just,  and  gentle  ?  How  can  we  stand  before  Him  and 
answer  for  having  violated  laws  so  righteous  and  good — 
for  having  neglected  and  despised  blessings  and  mercies 
so  numerous,  great,  and  long  continued,  and  so  well 
devised  to  bring  us  to  repentance !  How  can  we  stand 
before  such  a  Judge,  and  answer  Him  for  having  rejected 
so  many  calls  and  so  many  gracious  offers  of  his  pardon- 
ing mercy  ;  for  defeating  so  perse veringly  his  serious 
purposes  of  mercy  towards  us  ;  for  having  forfeited  his 
favor  and  incurred  his  displeasure  by  sinning  against 
our  own  souls,  and  for  having  abused  His  great  love  ! 

When  one  looks  at  the  world  it  may  well  be  asked,  do 
any  of  us  really  believe  this  Article  ?  Even  if  we  admit 
the  vague  idea  of  future  retribution,  do  we  bring  home 
to  ourselves  the  awful  strictness  with  which  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  judgment-day  will  be  carried  on  ?  There  may 
be  a  kind  of  general  mute  acquiescence  that  the  balance 
will  be  adjusted  at  last  between  good  and  evil,  and  the 
good  will  be  somewhat  rewarded  and  the  bad  in  some 
measure  punished ;  and  even  this  vague,  unsatisfactory 
conviction  causes  great  uneasiness  when  some  great  crime 
has  been  committed,  or  when  death  knocks  at  the  door. 
But  this  is  far  below  the  proper  and  scriptural  view  of 
the  awful  judgment  to  come  which  should  dwell  upon 
our  minds.  We  need  both  the  prohibitions  of  conscience, 
supported  by  the  sanctions  of  Eternal  Justice,  and  the 
stimulus  of  faith  to  enable  us  to  maintain  our  Christian 
character.  No  point  is  more  emphatically  pressed  in  Holy 
Scripture  than  the  certainty  and  strictness  of  the  details 
of  the  coming  judgment.  "And  I  saw  the  dead,  small 
and  great,  stand  before  God  ;  and  tlie  books  were  opened, 
and  another  book  Avas  opened,  which  is  the  Book  of  Life  ; 
and  the  dead  were  judged  out  of  those  things  which  were 
written  in  the  books  according  to  their  works.     And  the 


384  CHRIST   COMrNG   TO    THE    LAST   JUDGMEIS^T. 

sea  gave  up  the  dead  which  were  in  it ;  and  death  and 
hell  [that  is,  the  grave  and  the  whole  region  of  the 
departed,] — delivered  up  the  dead  which  were  in 
them  ;  and  they  were  judged  every  man  according  to 
their  works.  And  death  and  hell  were  cast  into  the  lake 
of  fire.  This  is  the  second  death.  And  whosoever  was 
not  found  written  in  the  Book  of  Life  was  cast  into  the 
lake  of  fire."     Eev.  xx.  12-15. 

1.  In  conclusion,  as  an  unbelieving  heart  is  one  of  the 
greatest  curses  which  can  come  upon  a  man,  so  a  real 
belief  in  the  last  judgment  is  a  great  grace  from  God. 
For  promoting  zeal  and  piety,  the  saintly  Basil  has  well 
said  concerning  the  future  judgment:  "Blessed  is  that 
soul,  which  day  and  night  hath  no  other  care  than  how,  in 
the  great  day,  when  every  creature  shall  stand  around  the 
Judge  to  give  an  account  of  their  works,  she  shall  be  able 
to  relate  lier  life.  For  whosoever  continually  places  that 
day  and  that  hour  before  his  eyes,  and  ever  thinks  of  his 
defence  at  that  most  just  tribunal,  is  likely  to  commit  no 
sin,  or  at  least  very  few."  And  so  also  Chrysostom  says : 
* '  Let  us  ever  be  saying  to  ourselves  and  to  others,  there 
is  a  resurrection,  and  a  terrible  judgment  awaiting  us." 

2.  The  sincere  belief  of  this  Article  would  powerfully 
reconcile  us  to  submit  to  the  dispensations  of  Divine  Pro- 
vidence. All  earthly  prosperity  and  adversity  is  rapidly 
passing  away,  and  we  are  hastening  to  the  Judgment-seat. 
Surely  then  we  are  not  to  repine  at  the  Providence  of  God 
as  exercised  toward  us  or  our  fellow-men. 

3.  It  should  also  keep  us  from  judging  rashly  con- 
cerning our  fellow-men.  God  has  not  appointed  us  to 
sit  in  judgment  over  them,  nor  has  He  trusted  to  our 
hands  the  avenging  sword  of  Justice.     "Who  art  thou 


rrs  INFLUENCE  ON  us.  335 

that  judgest  another  man' s  servant  ?  To  his  own  master 
he  standeth  or  falleth.  Yea,  he  shall  be  holden  up,  for 
God  is  able  to  make  him  stand.  So  every  one  of  ns  shall 
give  account  of  himself  to  God."     Rom.  xiv.  4-12. 

Is  it  possible  for  lis,  my  dear  brethren,  to  think  of 
any  subject  that  can  be  compared  in  importance  with 
this  one  ?  It  is  said  of  a  distinguished  name,  expressive 
of  a  nohle  life^  that  he  lived  and  acted  as  God's  steward 
over  an  immense  estate,  doing  good  with  all  his  revenues 
and  maintaining  a  cheerful  and  happy  state  of  mind 
under  a  life-long  deformity,  which  deprived  him  of  most 
of  the  pleasures  and  pursuits  of  other  men,  because  lie 
felt  every  day  that  he  might  die  to-morrow.'^ 

How  should  it  influence  our  words  and  our  conduct, 
if  we  could,  in  a  proper  way,  realize  that  we  must  here- 
after certainly  render  a  strict  account  of  all  our  actions — 
that  all  our  doings  must  undergo  a  strict  scrutiny  before 
Him  who  searcheth  the  heart  and  trieth  the  reins  of  the 
children  of  men !  And  how  careful  should  we  be  of  the 
entries  now  made  in  the  records  which  are  to  be  pro- 
duced in  that  day,  since  every  one  is  to  be  judged  and 
rewarded  and  punished  according  to  the  deeds  done  in 
the  body,  whether  they  be  good  or  bad  !  It  is  with  the 
greatest  propriety,  then,  that  the  Apostle  speaks  of  the 
doctrine  of  eternal  judgment  as  a  fundamental  principle 
of  our  holy  religion,  necessary  to  be  believed,  in  order  to 
repentance  from  dc^ad  works  and  faith  toward  God.  It  is 
impossible  to  conceive  of  a  sharper  "spur"t  to  the 
doing  of  good,  or  to  devise  a  stronger  '*curb"  from 
doing  ill,  than  the  real  belief  that  we  must  appear  before 
the  awful  and  impartial  Judgment- seat  of  Christ. 


*  "  A  Noble  Life,"  by  Mias  Muloch.     f  See  Dr.  Barrow^  on  the  Creed,  p.  45T. 


X 


336  CHEIST   COMING   TO    THE   LAST   JUDGMENT. 

4.  And  so  on  the  other  hand,  if  we  are  ourselves 
dealt  unjustly  by ;  if  we  are  misunderstood  and  wick- 
edly misrepresented ;  if  we  are  subjected  unjustly  to 
reproach,  scorn,  persecution,  even  unto  death,  then  let 
us  remember  there  is  One  who  knoweth  all  these  things, 
and  He  will  appear  for  the  innocent  at  last  and  vindicate 
the  honor  of  His  laws.  God  shall  bring  forth  thy  right- 
eousness as  the  light,  and  thy  judgments  as  the  noon- 
day. The  Apostle,  in  view  of  this  final  settlement,  and 
with  a  good  conscience,  could  say  :  With  me  it  is  a  very 
small  thing  that  I  should  be  judged  of  you,  or  in  man's 
judgment.     Ps.  xxxvii.  6 ;  1  Cor.  iv.  3. 

5.  N'or  can  I  conceive  of  a  more  powerful  stimulus  to 
beget  in  us  sincerity^  than  the  profound  conviction  that 
God  will  judge  us — not  by  our  professions  or  pretensions, 
promises  or  appearances,  but  according  to  our  individual 
realities — according  to  the  deeds  done  in  the  body.  Not 
only  our  words  and  actions,  but  our  motives,  designs, 
feelings,  the  most  inward  recesses  of  our  hearts,  where 
are  the  seeds  of  things,  the  germs  of  moral  character 
which  no  human  laws  can  reach,  will  then  be  brought  to 
light.  Every  thought  that  rises  in  the  mind,  as  well  as 
every  word  that  passeth  out  of  our  mouth,  as  well  as 
every  deed  that  our  hands  have  performed,  will  then  be 
judged.  And  since  we  know  that  this  awful  judgment 
awaits  us— but  when  we  may  be  called  to  meet  it  we 
know  not — then  surely  we  should  watch  and  be  diligent. 
What  manner  of  persons  ought  we  to  be  in  all  holy  con- 
versation and  godliness,  looking  for  and  hastening  unto 
the  coming  of  the  day  of  God  ?  Notice  how  the  blessed 
Apostle  stirred  himself  up,  and  reminded  his  beloved 
Timothy  of  the  awards  of  the  eternal  judgment:  "I 
charge  thee  therefore  before  God,  and  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  who  shall  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead  at  his 


ARE    WE   LOOKING   FOR   IT?  337 

appearing  and  his  kingdom.  For  I  am  now  ready  to  be 
offered,  and  the  time  of  my  departure  is  at  hand.  I  have 
fought  a  good  fight,  I  have  finished  my  course,  I  have 
kept  the  faith  :  henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me  a  crown 
of  righteousness,  which  the  Lord,  the  righteous  Judge, 
shall  give  me  at  that  day  :  and  not  to  me  only,  but  unto 
all  them  also  that  love  his  appearing."  2  Tim.  iv.  1-8. 
Let  us,  then,  by  the  grace  of  God,  which  appeareth  to  all 
men,  deny  ourselves — deny  all  ungodliness,  worldly  lusts, 
and  live  soberly,  righteously,  and  piously  in  this  present 
world,  in  the  blessed  hope  of  the  appearance  of  the  great 
God,  even  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  to  whom  with  the 
Father,  through  the  eternal  Spirit,  be  equal  and  eternal 
praises.     Amen. 

22 


838  CHRIST   JUDGING   THE   WOELD. 


XYI 


CHRIST  JUDGING  THE  WORLD. 


"  Because  he  hatli  appointed  a  day,  in  the  which  he  will  judge  the  world  in 
righteousness,  by  that  man  whom  he  hath  ordained  ;  whereof  he  hath  given  as- 
surance unto  all  men,  in  that  he  hath  raised  Him  from  the  dead." — ^Acts  xvii.  31. 


1.  In  the  Discourse  last  Sabbath  evening,  the  doctrine 
of  our  Creed  concerning  Christ  coming  to  judge  the 
world  was  stated,  and  a  brief  history  of  the  Article  was 
given,  and  some  reasons  were  offered,  why  it  was 
adopted  as  an  exponent  of  the  Faith  of  the  ancient 
churches,  and  why  it  should  be  retained  and  believed 
in,  just  as  we  have  it. 

2.  Your  attention  was  directed  to  the  place  where 
and  to  the  time  when  the  general  judgment  was  to  be 
held.  The  place,  we  thought,  was  the  air  of  the  new 
earth  ;  the  time  not  known,  because  not  revealed  to  us 
nor  to  the  angels. 

3.  It  was  sTiown,  however,  that  the  fact  was  certain, 
and  that  Jesus  Christ  was  to  be  the  Judge — that  according 
to  the  Scriptures  it  was  the  solemn  appointment  of  the 
Father  Almighty  that  his  only  Son  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
in  His  human  nature,  should  be  the  Judge — in  the  same 
perfect  human  nature  in  which  he  ascended  into  heaven 


PROOF  TEXTS  OF  THE  JUDGMEIH?.       339 

after  His  resurrection,  and  in  which  He  now  sitteth  on  the 
right  hand  of  the  Throne  of  God  in  heaven,  shall  He  come 
visibly  with  power  and  great  glory  to  judge  the  world. 

Among  the  particulars  yet  to  be  considered  on  this 
Article,  let  us  now  proceed — 

1.  To  consider,  why  God  hath  appointed  a  day  of 
general  judgment. 

And  1.  That  God  has  appointed  such  a  day  is  as 
clearly  and  as  positively  affirmed  in  the  Word  of  God  as 
language  can  express  it.  Matt.  x.  15  ;  xii.  36 ;  xxv.  ; 
Ecc.  xi.  9  ;  Acts  xvii.  31 ;  Heb.  ix.  22 ;  2  Pet.  ii.  9  ;  iii. 
7 ;  1  John.  iv.  17  ;  Jude ;  2  Thess.  i.  7-10  ;  iv.  14-18  ; 
Heb.  vi.  1,  2;  2  Cor.  v.  10  ;  E.om.  xiv.  10,  11 ;  Jo.  v.  22 ; 
Rev.  XX.  12. 

2.  The  resurrection  of  Christ  is  a  proof  that  He  is  to 
come  again  to  judge  the  world. 

A  few  texts  on  this  point  at  present,  as  Acts  xvii. 
31  ;  and  Rom.  xiv.  9,  12,  are  deemed  quite  sufficient. 
''  Because  God  hath  appointed  a  day,  in  the  which  he 
will  judge  the  world  in  righteousness,  by  that  man  whom 
He  hath  ordained  ;  whereof  He  hath  given  assurance 
unto  all  men,  in  that  He  hath  raised  him  from  the 
dead.^''  *'For  to  this  end  Christ  both  died,  and  rose, 
and  revived,  that  He  might  be  Lord  both  of  the  dead  and 
the  living.  For  we  shall  all  stand  before  the  Judgment- 
seat  of  Christ.  So  then  every  one  of  us  shall  give 
account  of  himself  to  God."  It  is  usual  in  the  sacred 
writers  to  connect  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  with  the 
eternal  judgment^  as  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  vi. 
1,  2.  For  the  most  part  the  same  texts  of  Holy  Scripture 
that  prove  our  Lord's  resurrection,  ascension,  and  sitting 
on  the  right  hand  of  God,  also  speak  of  his  coming  again 
to  judge  the  world  ;  and  when  in  any  of  these  proof  texts 


340  OIIKIST   JUDGIiS^G    THE    WOELD. 

His  second  coming  is  not  spoken  of  in  express  terms,  it 
is  always  clearly  implied.  "This  same  Jesus,"  say  the 
angels  to  the  disciples,  "which  is  taken  up  from  you  into 
heaven,  shall  so  come  in  like  manner  as  ye  have  seen 
him  go  into  heaven."  Acts  i.  11.  "For  if  we  believe 
that  Jesus  died  and  rose  again,  even  so,  them  also  which 
sleep  in  Jesus  will  God  bring  with  him.  For  the  Lord 
Himself  shall  descend  from  heaven — and  the  dead  in 
Christ  shall  rise  first."  1  Thess.  iv.  14-18.  ''And  to  you 
who  are  troubled  rest  with  us,  when  the  Lord  Jesus  shall 
be  revealed  from  heaven  with  His  mighty  angels,  in 
flaming  fire  taking  vengeance  on  them  that  know  not 
God,  and  that  obey  not  the  Gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ."     2  Thess.  i.  7,  8. 

It  is  in  evidence  then  that  God  has  appointed  a  deter- 
minate  day  for  the  judgment  of  the  world  in  righteous- 
ness by  Jesus  Christ,  as  the  Creed  afliirms.  This  Article 
then  denies  and  refutes  on  Scriptural  authority  the 
opinion  or  surmise  of  those  who  hold  that  there  is  no 
fixed  day  for  a  general  judgment.  It  is  a  notorious  fact 
not  only  that  there  were  ancient  heretics  who  denied  any 
resurrection  from  the  dead,  or  any  determinate  general 
judgment  of  mankind  ;  but  there  are  now  certain  teach- 
ers who  either  altogether  avoid  committing  themselves 
on  the  subject,  or  who  hold  the  opinion  that  by  the  term 
day^  in  regard  to  the  last  judgment,  we  are  to  understand 
simply  that  as  the  present  season  of  grace  is  sometimes 
called  the  sinner's  day,  or  the  day  of  God's  long-suff*ering 
and  patience  towards  us,  so  when  the  Gospel  dispen- 
sation ceases,  and  there  is  an  end  of  its  shining  light, 
during  which  sinners  were  called  to  repentance,  then 
comes  what  is  called  the  last  day^  for  then  the  Judgment 
will  commence,  but  that  we  cannot  fix  any  definite  idea 
to  the  term  day  as  used  in  reference  to  it.     On  the 


JUSTICE   EEQUIRE3  A   JUDGMEISTT.  341 

contrary,  the  Creed  implies  what  the  Scriptures  declare, 
that  God  has  appointed  a  day  for  the  judgment  of  the 
world  in  righteousness  by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who 
shall  come  from  heaven  for  that  purpose.  [See  Confes- 
sion of  Faith^  chaps,  xxxii.  and  xxxiii.,  quoted  in  pre- 
vious chapter.] 

3.  Again  :  Such  are  the  relations  between  God  as  Crea- 
tor^ Supreme  Lawgiver^  and  Universal  Governor^  that 
His  Justice  requires  an  open  and  final  adjustment  cf 
the  affairs  of  His  Universe.  Speaking  with  reverence, 
He  is  bound  by  his  Eternal  Justice  to  be  faithful  to  him- 
self, to  his  laws,  and  to  all  the  virtuous  beings  in  all  his 
universe — to  vindicate  his  moral  government  by  reward- 
ing the  obedient  and  punishing  the  disobedient,  and  thus 
show  that  there  is  a  difference  between  those  that  serve 
Him,  and  those  that  serve  Him  not.  If  the  Supreme 
Being  does  not  take  notice  of  His  creatures,  and  reward 
the  obedient  and  punish  the  disobedient,  then  this  world 
is  indeed  a  poor  melancholy  atom,  and  we  are  orphans  in 
the  vastness  of  a  creation  that  has  no  Creator.  If  Epicurus 
is  right,  that  there  is  no  notice  taken  of  human  conduct  by 
the  Supreme  Being,  then  what  becomes  of  Gfod's  Justice  % 
But  we  know  that  some  visitations  of  vengeance  have 
fallen  upon  mankind.  And  if  so,  must  there  not  be  equal 
justice  done  to  all  %  For  if  the  inequalities  of  this  life  are 
not  put  to  right  in  the  world  to  come,  it  is  impossible  for 
God' s  creatures  to  see  His  Justice,  or  to  know  that  there 
is  in  fact  any  difference  between  doing  well  or  doing  evil. 
To  deny  the  future  judgment  is  to  destroy  the  foundation 
of  all  morality. 

Even  among  the  heathen,  we  find  from  the  remotest 
antiquity  some  dark  notions  about  a  future  judgment — 
some  ''few  sparkles  of  light  in  their  consciences"  about 
a  future  state  or  of  a  judgment  to  come.    Both  philoso- 


342  CHEIST   JUDGING    TIIE    WORLD. 

I)hers  and  poets  in  Greece  and  Eome  wrote  about  it. 
Plato  and  the  Platonists,  and  Cicero  and  Yirgil  abound 
with  references  to  a  future  trial  and  rewards  and  punish- 
ments to  come  from  a  final  adjustment  of  the  contest  now 
carried  on  between  good  and  evil.  Man's  moral  nature 
is  so  strongly  impressed  with  the  idea  of  some  future 
state,  and  of  some  final  result  as  to  the  contest  between 
good  and  evil,  that  all  nations  and  ages  have  in  some  way 
expressed  their  belief  on  the  subject.  All  lands  have 
temples  and  worshippers,  and  all  zones  have  altars  and 
sacrifices.  The  savage  tribes  of  the  wilderness,  the  hiero- 
phants  of  Egypt,  the  schools  of  Kome,  the  sages  of  the 
Academy,  and  the  wise  men  of  the  East,  have  all,  though 
in  different  ways,  confessed  their  conviction  as  to  the 
reality  of  moral  evil,  and  the  necessity  of  some  future 
retribution.  Now  whence  this  moral  sense,  and  this  idea 
of  a  future  judgment  ?  Is  it  innate  1  If  so,  whence  does 
it  come,  but  from  the  Creator?  Is  it  learned  from  tra- 
dition or  acquire'd  by  reason?  Whence  its  unwersal' 
ity  unless  it  is  divinely  inspired?  But  although  all 
ages  have  felt  painful  convictions  on  these  subjects,  yet 
none  knew  how  to  escape  from  the  wrath  to  come.  For 
the  two  thousand  years  intervening  between  Noah  and 
the  coming  of  Christ,  God  left  the  world  to  prove  to 
itself  that  by  its  own  wisdom  it  could  not  find  Him  out 
nor  deliver  itself  from  the  power  of  evil.  The  very  idea 
of  our  accountability  after  death  for  the  actions  of  this 
life  involves  the  day  of  future  retribution. 

And  although  it  is  not  possible  to  analyze  these  notions 
of  the  heathens,  and  say  exactlj^  how  much  they  received 
from  others,  or  how  much  they  have  discovered  by  the 
mere  light  of  nature,  or  how  much  they  owe  to  the  dim 
and  scattered  glimmerings  of  divine  truth  revealed  to  the 
Hebrews,  yet  enough  is  clearly  seen  to  show  that  there  is 


FOUR    UJSTVERSAL   JUDGMENTS.  343 

a  wide-spread  and  deeply  painful  consciousness  that 
something  is  needed  to  break  down  the  reign  of  evil ;  and 
that,  as  an  actor  in  the  old  French  revolution  said,  if  there 
is  no  God,  we  must  make  one,  for  the  world  cannot  be 
governed  without  a  God.  Human  society  cannot  continue 
to  exist,  if  all  idea  of  a  future  state  and  accountability 
for  our  conduct  after  death  were  lifted  oft"  the  heart  of 
man.  Moral  responsibility  is  necessary  to  break  or  to 
endure  the  reign  of  moral  evil. 

The  heathen,  especially  Plutarch  and  Cicero^  have 
written  largely  concerning  the  necessity  of  a  judgment 
to  come.  And  the  Sacred  Scriptures  clearly  and  fully 
confirm  what  natural  religion,  or  perhaps  we  should 
rather  say,  what  common  sense,  reason,  and  the  Provi- 
dence and  attributes  of  God  require,  that  there  should  be 
a  future  general  judgment. 

Nor  is  it  unworthy  of  notice,  as  Wltsius  argues,  that 
we  have  precedents  in  sacred  history  that  should  be 
received  as  proofs  and  warnings  of  the  judgment  to  come. 
We  read  in  the  Bible  of  four  public  and  universal  judg- 
ments upon  our  race.  Firsts  in  Paradise,  when  we  were 
all  represented  in  Adam  ;  second,  on  the  world  before  the 
flood  ;  third,  on  the  nations  in  the  plains  of  Shinar, 
at  the  tower  of  Babel.  And  the  fourth  is  the  last  judg- 
ment. 

The  wisest  heathen  have  been  found,  like  the  royal 
Psalmist  before  he  went  to  the  sanctuary  of  God,  and 
learned  their  dreadful  end,  stumbling  at  the  prosperity 
of  the  wicked  in  this  world.  From  this  unequal, 
unfinished  state  of  things  two  opposite  conclusions  have 
been  drawn ;  namely,  that  the  Supreme  Being  is  totally 
indifferent  to  human  actions,  and  consequently  there  is  no 
final  judgment-day  for  rectifying  the  miseries  of  this  life. 
Every  thing  is  left  to  chance  or  blind  fate.     This  is  too 


844  CHRIST   JUDGING   THE   WORLD. 

monstrous  to  need  refutation.     The  other  view  is  that  the 
miseries  of  this  life,  in  which  the  most  pious  and  good, 
and  in  every  way  some  of  the  best  men  on  earth  are 
deeply  involved,  and  pass  out  of  this  world  without  any 
redress,  imperatively  call  for  a  future  judgment.      The 
moral  proof,  then,  of  a  future  judgment  is  deriyed  both 
from  within  ourselves,  and  from  the  works  of  creation  and 
Providence, — from  conscience  in  us,  and  from  evidences 
of  design  in  the  works  and  government  of  God.     The 
whole  constitution  of  the  universe,  and  the  whole  frame- 
work of  human  society,  are  witnesses  for  its  necessity. 
The  testimony  of  the  moral  sense  is  universal  and  strong. 
Nor  are  there  wanting  evidences  of  design  in  the  works 
of  the  Creator,  which  lead   us    irresistibly  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  unfinisJied  problems  of  his  Providence 
in  this  world  must  be  completed  in  the  world  to  come. 
We  cannot  believe  they  are  dropped  and  abandoned.    On 
the  contrary,  all  we  know  of  the  wisdom  of  God  con- 
strains us  to  believe  that  He  has  secured  a  perpetual 
identity  to  all  His  moral  creatures,  and  guaranteed  that 
this  life  of  man  shall  so  far  lap  over  and  impress  itself  on 
the  life  to  come,  thUt  this  world  is  only  the  sowing,  and 
futurity  is  the  harvest.     The  natural  world  unquestion- 
ably demonstrates  the  perfect  wisdom.  Almighty  power, 
and  Supreme  goodness  of  the  Creator.     Is  it  reasonable, 
then,   to    suppose  that  His    moral    government  is  less 
perfect  ?    In  the  light  of  reason  and  common  sense,  does 
induction  teach  us  there  is  a  God,  who  is  all  wise,  all 
powerful,  and  supremely  good?    And  is  it  not,  then,  a 
legitimate  conclusion  that  there  is  a  final  Judgment-seat, 
when  and  where  the  apparently  inconsistent  dispensa- 
tions of  His  moral  government  over  the  universe  will  be 
cleared  up  ?    For  if  this  life  is  really  nothing  but  a  life 
of  trial,  to  be  succeeded  by  a  final  retribution,  then  we 
are  sure  the  goodness,  truth,  and  justice  of  God  will  be 


UNFINISHED    PROBLEMS.  345 

vindicated  in  the  moral  world  quite  as  clearly  as  his  glo- 
rious perfections  are  seen  in  the  natural  world.  Some 
things  are  clear,  even  now.  For  example,  there  are  some 
cases  just  such  as  we  have  referred  to.  Cunning  gains 
over  honest  simplicity.  The  truth  is,  that  though  honesty 
is  upon  the  whole  the  best  policy^  yet  there  are  cases 
whose  sequel  we  do  not  see,  and  hence,  as  far  as  this 
world  is  concerned,  there  are  exceptions  to  this  great 
maxim.  No  one  is  prepared  to  say  there  are  not  indivi- 
dual cases  that  are  exceptions  to  this  rule,  if  this  life  is 
the  whole  of  human  existence.  For  it  is  certainly  the 
testimony  of  human  experience  that  many  things  here 
are  unfinished.  Many  cases  are  adjourned  to  a  heavenly 
tribunal,  where,  from  the  character  of  God,  we  look  for 
a  perfect  vindication  of  innocence,  and  of  all  his  ways 
towards  his  creatures,  in  the  punishment  of  wrong-doing 
and  the  reward  of  well-doing.  If,  in  the  checkered 
events  of  human  life,  we  see  men  of  integrity  made  the 
victims  of  the  snares  and  evil  deeds  of  the  artful,  who 
receive  a  temporal  reward;  and  if  we  find  the  godly 
suffering  from  sickness  and  other  visitations  of  Divine 
Providence,  is  it  not  evident  that  this  is  not  the  end  ? — 
these  cases  are  adjourned  to  the  eternal  world.  It  is  quite 
true  also  that  sometimes  God  lays  his  hand  upon  trans- 
gressors, so  that  He  may  be  known  on  the  earth  by  the 
judgment  which  He  executes  upon  them.  And  are  these 
any  thing  but  preludes  or  pledges  of  that  awful  judgment 
which  is  to  come?  Proofs  that  we  must  leave  many 
things,  sadly  unfinished  as  they  are,  without  seeing  the 
reasons,  to  the  judgment  of  the  last  day,  being  perfectly 
sure  there  is  One  above  us  who  sees  all,  and  who  ren- 
ders to  every  man  according  to  the  deeds  done  in  the 
body — according  to  his  works. 

4.  Let  me  call  your  attention  now,  in  the  next  place, 


346  CUEIST   JUDGING   THE   WOELD. 

to  something  in  regard  to  tlie  circumstances  and 
manner  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Judgment- day  which 
may  be  clearly  learned  from  the  Scriptures.  The 
Lord  Jesus  shall  come  in  his  human  nature  from  his 
throne  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  from  heaven,  and 
He  shall  come  msibly  in  the  clouds  of  heaven,  and 
with  power  and  great  glory.  Innumerable  hosts  of 
holy  angels  will  appear  with  him.  Matt.  xxiv.  30 ; 
2  Thess.  i.  7. 

His  coming  is  to  be  sudden^ — as  it  was  in  the  days  of 
Noah  and  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah.  This  proves  that  the 
world  will  then  be  very  much  as  it  is  now — that  His 
coming  will  be  unexpected — that  it  will  be  sudden — in  a 
moment,  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  the  archangel' s  voice 
shall  shake  all  the  earth,  and  rouse  the  dead  out  of  their 
sleep. 

"  Lol  on  a  narrow  neck  of  land, 
'Twixt  two  unbounded  seas  I  stand, 

Tet  how  insensible ! 
A  point  of  time,  a  moment's  space, 
Removes  me  to  that  heavenly  place, 
Or  shuts  me  up  in  hell. 

"  0  God  !  my  inmost  soul  convert, 
And  deeply  on  my  thoughtful  heart 

Eternal  things  impress. 
Give  me  to  feel  their  solemn  weight, 
And  save  me  ere  it  be  too  late ; 

Wake  me  to  righteousness," — Wesley. 

Tlie  manner  in  which  the  sacred  writers  speak  of  our 
Lord's  coming  to  judge  the  world  impresses  us  with  the 
great  solemnity,  glory,  and  magnificence  of  the  event.  He 
once  came  in  meekness  and  humility  to  teach  us  how 
great  was  his  love  for  us,  and  to  show  us  our  duty.  He 
shall  come  again  in  his  glory,  and  His  holy  angels  with 
him,  in  terrible  majesty,  to  teach  us  that  every  creature  is 
subject  to  Him. 


MANl^R   OF   THE   JUDGMENT.  347 

In  Heb.  xii.  26,  the  Apostle  seems  to  have  in  his  mind 
a  contrast  between  the  glory  of  the  giving  of  the  law  at 
Mount  Sinai  and  the  glory  of  the  eternal  judgment,  when 
Christ  shall  judge  the  world  according  to  that  law 
^' whose  voice  then  shook  the  earth  ;  but  now  He  hath 
promised,  saying :  Yet  once  more  I  shake  not  the  earth 
only,  but  also  heaven." 

Our  Lord  expressly  declares,  in  Luke  ix.  26,  that  He 
would  come  to  this  world  again  after  his  sufferings  and 
death,  and  come  in  His  own  glory,  and  in  the  glory  of  His 
Father,  and  in  the  glory  of  the  holy  angels.  The  same  is 
substantially,  and  almost  in  the  same  words,  to  be  found 
in  many  other  places. 

The  splendor  of  the  Divine  Majesty  will  be  made 
manifest :  *'  When  the  Son  of  Man  shall  come  in  his  glory, 
and  all  the  holy  angels  with  him,  then  shall  He  sit  upon 
the  throne  of  his  glory."  Matt.  xxv.  31.  "Hereafter 
shall  ye  see  the  Son  of  Man  sitting  on  the  right  hand  of 
power,  and  coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven."  "All  the 
tribes  of  the  earth  shall  see  the  Son  of  Man  coming  in  the 
clouds  of  heaven,  with  power  and  great  glory."  Matt, 
xxiv.  30,  and  xxvi.  64. 

According  to  the  Scriptures  also,  the  magnificence  of 
this  day  is  to  be  ushered  in  with  the  trump  of  God, 
by  which  the  dead  are  to  be  raised.  "For  the  Lord 
himself  shall  descend  from  heaven  with  a  shout  (1  Thess. 
iv.  16),  with  the  voice  of  the  archangel."  That  is,  with 
authority  to  enforce  obedience  from  all  angels,  powers, 
and  authorities— for  all  are  put  under  Him  who  is  the 
Head  over  all  things  to  His  Church. 

But  how  are  we  to  understand  these  words,  with  a 
shout,  with  the  voice  of  an  archangel,  and  with  the  trump 
of  God  f    Are  they  to  be  taken  in  a  literal  sense  ?    Why 


348  CHRIST   JUDGIIS'G   THE    WOELD. 

not  ?  Is  there  any  reason  for  departing  from  the  literal 
meaning  ?  Was  there  not  a  literal  sounding  of  the  trum- 
pet exceeding  loud  at  the  giving  of  the  law  %  Why  was 
not  this  intended  to  be  a  model  for  the  Judgment-day  ? 
And  is  not  this  view  supported  by  the  use  of  trumpets  in 
executing  the  Divine  judgments  upon  Jericho  ?  It  may 
be  metaphorical^  however,  so  far  as  the  instrument  is 
concerned.  It  may  be  that  the  voice  that  is  to  call  the 
world  to  judgment  and  wake  the  dead,  will  be  composed 
of  thunder  such  as  those  heard  when  God  spoke  in  the 
hearing  of  the  people  at  Mount  Sinai.  Perhaps  it  will  be 
an  articulated  voice  formed  by  the  angel  hosts  in  the  air,  so 
in  harmony  as  to  produce  a  sound  loud  enough  to  fill  the 
whole  earth,  and  yet  as  if  the  utterance  of  but  one  trum- 
pet, and  that  as  soon  as  the  attention  of  quick  and  dead 
is  secured,  from  the  same  hosts  will  be  heard  the  sum- 
mons of  the  parable  of  the  virgins :  "  Behold,  the  Bride- 
groom cometh  ;  go  ye  out  to  meet  him." 

All  that  need  be  insisted  on  is,  that  Christ's  command 
to  bring  the  quick  and  the  dead  to  judgment  will  be 
effectual.  It  will  gather  them  before  him.  And  as  the 
sound  of  a  trumpet  by  one  who  blows  it  well  is  loud, 
penetrating  far  and  wide;  so  Christ's  call  to  judgment 
will  reach  every  cavern  and  receptacle  of  the  dead  on 
the  mountains  and  on  the  plains,  and  under  the  seas. 
And  as  the  phraseology  of  the  sacred  writers  is  Jewish, 
it  is  not  strange  they  should  represent  the  gathering  of 
mankind  to  be  judged,  as  if  called  by  a  trumpet,  as  tlie 
Israelites  were  accustomed  to  be  assembled  on  festival 
days,  or  for  other  solemn  purposes. 

Again,  an  immense  retinue  of  angels  are  also  men- 
tioned in  several  places  by  the  inspired  writers,  as 
contributing  to  the  glory  of  Christ  when  He  shall  come 
to  judge  the  world.     So  our  Lord  says  himself ;   ''  When 


ANGELS    AT   THE   JUDGMENT.  349 

the  Son  of  Man  shall  come  in  glory,  and  all  the  holy 
angels  with  Him,  then  shall  He  sit  upon  the  Throne  of 
his  glory."  And  Enochs  the  seventh  from  Adam,  pro- 
phesied, saying,  ''Behold,  the  Lord  cometh  with  ten 
thousand  of  his  saints,"  and  Paul  says  the  Lord  Jesus 
shall  be  revealed  from  heaven  "with  his  mighty  angels." 

Nor  are  the  angels  to  be  mere  idle  spectators.  They 
are  to  be  employed  in  assembling  the  vast  multitudes. 
"He  shall  send  His  angels  with  a  great  sound  of  a 
trumpet,  and  they  shall  gather  together  his  elect  from  the 
four  winds,  from  one  end  of  heaven  to  the  other."  "  And 
the  angels  shall  come  forth  and  sever  the  wicked  from 
the  righteous,  as  the  goats  are  separated  from  the  sheep. 
For  the  Son  of  Man  shall  send  forth  his  angels,  and  they 
shall  gather  out  of  His  Kingdom  all  things  that  offend, 
and  them  which  do  iniquity,  and  shall  cast  them  into  a 
furnace  of  fire."  Angels  are  employed  as  his  ministers 
now,  and  assist  His  people,  and  carry  home  their  souls 
when  they  leave  their  bodies,  and  will  aid  in  taking  them 
through  the  air  to  meet  their  Lord,  and  in  punishing  the 
incorrigibly  wicked. 

It  may  be  asked,  in  what  sense  then  are  saints  to  judge 
the  world,  and  even  angels,  according  to  St.  Paul's  words 
in  1  Cor.  vi.  2,  3  ?  I  answer,  in  precisely  the  same  sense 
that  the  Apostles  and  believers  are  promised  to  sit  on 
thrones  with  Christ,  or  to  reign  with  Him  :  namel}^,  their 
will  is  in  perfect  harmony  with  His.  They  approve  of 
his  decisions.  And  their  justification  and  example,  as 
sinners  saved,  is  a  just  condemnation  of  those  who  have 
rejected  Christ.  No  importance  is  to  be  attached  to  the 
fact  that  historically  believers  became  magistrates  in  the 
Roman  empire,  or  may  be  such  now,  as  an  interpretation 
of  this  passage.  Nor  do  I  think  it  exhausted  by  simply 
saying  that  believers  judge  the  world  and  angels  in  Christ 


350  CHEIST   JUDGESTG    THE   WOELD. 

as  their  Head.  This  is  true  ;  but  a  specialty  is  attached 
to  the  fact  that  their  individual  wills  are  in  perfect  sub- 
mission and  in  sweet  harmony  with  the  mind  of  Christ. 
They  rejoice  therefore  with  approbation  in  all  his  ways. 
It  may  also  be  true  that  the  term  judge  is  here  to  be  taken 
in  the>  sense  of  govern^  and  that  saints  are  to  exercise 
authority  under  Christ  in  the  new  heavens  and  the  new 
earth. 

5.  We  have  come  now  to  the  paeties  to  be  judged. 
''  From  thence  He  shall  come  to  judge  the  quick  and  the 
dead."  God  hath  appointed  a  day  in  the  which  He  will 
judge  the  world  by  Jesus  Christ. 

Both  persons  and  their  works  must  pass  the  Judgment- 
seat  of  Christ — those  who  may  be  living,  the  quick,  and 
all  who  have  died — both  good  and  bad — and  all  evil 
spirits.     2  Pet.  ii.  4  ;  Jude  6. 

To  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead^  that  is,  the  world, 
or  rather  the  moral  agents  that  are  in  it,  or  have  belonged 
to  it.  Those  are  dead  who  ar^e  said  to  have  fallen  asleep; 
and  those  who  are  living  at  that  time,  who,  in  contradis- 
tinction to  the  dead  who  are  asleep,  are  denominated  the 
quiclt^  the  living.  The  terms  the  quick  and  the  dead  are 
co-extensive  with  the  whole  of  our  race.  The  dead  are 
to  be  raised,  and  the  living  to  be  changed,  for  in  every 
case  corruption  must  put  on  incorruption  and  mortality 
must  put  on  immortality. 

The  quick  and  dead  does  not  mean^  as  some  say,  the 
hodies  and  tJie  souls  of  men,  nor  the  good  and  the  had, 
but  those  who  are  alive  at  the  moment  of  the  judgment, 
and  all  the  dead  from  the  beginning  of  Adam's  race. 
The  similes  used  of  the  flood  and  of  the  overthrow  of  the 
cities  of  the  plain  imply  clearly  that  the  world  shall  be 
going  on  just  as  it  is  now.     It  shall  be  peopled,  and  there 


THE    QUICK   AND   THE   DEAD.  351 

will  be  good  and  bad,  and  those  alive  shall  be  caught  up 
quick  to  judgment,  undergoing  a  change  equivalent  to 
death,  for  the  purpose  of  putting  off  mortality  and  put- 
ting on  immortality.  The  Son  of  Man  shall  come  as  a 
thief  in  the  night.  St.  Peter  declares,  in  the  very  words 
of  the  Creed,  that  God  ordained  Jesus  Christ  to  judge  the 
quick  and  the  dead;  and  so  does  St.  Paul:  "I  charge 
thee  therefore  before  God  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who 
shall  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead  at  his  appearing 
and  his  kingdom."  And  Peter  in  another  place  says: 
*'  Who  shall  render  an  account  to  Him  that  is  ready  to 
judge  the  quick  and  dead;"  and  Paul  in  another  place, 
that  He  may  be  Lord  both  of  the  dead  and  living.* 

From  which  Scriptures  it  is  clear  the  quick  and  the 
dead  means  all  men  ;  and  that  some  shall  be  living  when 
the  Judge  shall  come,  but  that  the  living  and  the  previous 
dead  shall  together  and  at  the  same  time  be  the  subjects  of 
the  last  judgment.  Thus  we  are  told  in  1  Thess.  iv.  15, 
that  we  which  live — who  shall  be  alive — remaining  on 
the  earth  when  the  Lord  shall  come,  shall  not  prevent 
them  which  are  asleep.  We  shall  not,  indeed,  all  fall 
asleep — all  shall  not  die,  or  be  found  dead,  when  the 
day  of  the  great  judgment  comes,  but  we,  that  is,  the  hu- 
man beings  then  alive,  shall  be  changed  in  a  moment,  in 
the  twinkling  of  an  eye.  1  Cor.  xv.  51. 

That  all  must  be  judged  is  according  then  to  both  rea- 
son and  Scripture.  All  are  creatures.  All  are  therefore 
accountable  in  the  measure  the  Creator  has  imposed  ob- 
ligations upon  them.  As  it  is  appointed  unto  all  men 
once  to  die,  so  after  death  is  the  judgment  for  all  men. 
And  so  also  says  St.  John :  "  I  saw  the  dead — all  the  dead 


*  Acts  X.  42 ;  2  Tim.  iv.  1 ;  1  Pet.  iv.  5 ;  Rom.  xiv.  9. 


352  CHRIST   JUDGING   THE   WOELD. 

—small  and  great,  stand  before  God,  and  the  dead  were 
judged  out  of  the  things  written  in  the  Ibooks,  according 
to  their  works."  All  will  be  there,  every  one— the  rich 
and  the  poor,  the  master  and  the  servant,  the  mightiest 
and  the  lowest,  the  learned  and  the  ignorant — all,  without 
any  exception  and  without  any  partiality,  must  appear 
before  the  Judgment-seat  of  Christ  and  undergo  this 
trial,  and  receive  sentence  according  to  the  deeds  done  in 
the  body.  The  last  judgment  is  to  be  universal.  No  one, 
not  you  nor  I  can  escape  it.  We  shall  certainly  stand 
before  the  Judgment-seat  of  Christ.  He  shall  come  to 
judge  the  quick  and  the  dead. 

But  whether  good  angels  are  to  be  judged  or  not,  all 
men,  both  good  and  bad,  must  appear  before  the  Judg- 
ment-seat of  Christ.  So  the  Scriptures  positively  affirm. 
2  Cor.  V.  10,  and  Jude  14 ;  Rom.  xiv.  10-12  ;  Acts  x. 
42.;  2  Tim.  iv.  1. 

Collective  terms  are  used,  and  classes  specified  by  the 
sacred  writers,  in  such  a  way  as  to  show  conclusively 
that  all  men  must  be  judged.  It  could  not  be  otherwise  ; 
for  all  are  creatures,  all  have  sinned  ;  their  outstanding 
unsettled  accounts  must  be  adjusted,  so  that  it  may  appear 
that  God  is  indeed  just  when  He  judgeth,  and  righteous 
when  He  condemneth.  If  any  were  rejected  or  over- 
looked, there  would  be  no  guarantee  for  justice. 

6.  What  is  to  he  judged  f  Thoughts,  words,  and  deeds. 
The  sacred  writers  specify  idle  and  hard  speeches,  that  is, 
arrogant  and  cruel  expressions  against  our  fellow-men 
as  well  as  against  God. 

And  are  the  sins  of  the  godly  now  to  he  exposed  as 
well  as  the  sins  of  the  wicked  f  Much  is  said  on  both 
sides  of  this  question.  That  they  will  be  published  is 
argued — 


THE   SINS   OF   THE   GODLY.  353 

First.  From  the  fact  that  the  Scriptures  speak  in  a 
general  way  of  the  works  of  all  men,  good  as  well  as  bad, 
coming  before  God  in  the  judgment. 

Secondly.  Impartial  justice  would  seem  to  require 
both  sides  of  a  case,  what  is  against  as  well  as  what  is  for 
the  parties  to  be  judged.  The  sins  from  which  they  are 
saved,  if  seen,  would  show  the  greatness  of  their  salvation 
and  render  the  condemnation  of  the  ungodly  more  fully 
justifiable,  if  it  could  need  it. 

Thirdly.  The  memory  of  the  sins  of  the  godly  is  per- 
petuated in  the  sacred  records :  Why  may  they  not  be 
mentioned  again  and  for  the  last  time  at  the  judgment  ? 

Fourthly.  The  Grace  of  God  in  their  salvation,  and 
the  Justice  of  God  in  the  punishment  of  the  incorrigibly 
impenitent,  would  be  more  palpably  displaj^ed  by  bring- 
ing their  sins  to  light  than  by  keeping  them  in  darkness. 
Nor  is  it  possible  not  to  see  that  the  idea  of  publishing 
their  sins  at  the  last  day  is  a  stimulus  to  watchfulness 
against  committing  sin,  whereas  the  contrary  doctrine 
would  lead  to  carnal  security. 

On  the  other  side,  it  is  said  : 

1.  The  Scriptures  do  not  anywhere  affirm  positively 
that  the  evil  doings  of  saints  will  then  be  made  public. 

2.  The  promise  of  God  on  the  contrary  is,  that  He 
will  remember  no  more  our  sins,  but  will  cast  them  into 
the  depths  of  the  sea.  And  it  is  asked,  if  God  has  re- 
moved our  sins  out  of  his  sight,  why  will  He  allow  them 
to  be  exposed  to  the  gaze  of  angels  and  men,  our  former 
friends  and  enemies?  If  they  have  once  been  buried, 
why  bring  them  from  the  depths  of  the  ocean  before  the 
vast  assembly  of  the  universe  ? 

23 


354  CHRIST    JUDGING   THE    WORLD. 

3.  It  is  said  again,  Christ  is  our  advocate,  our  propi- 
tiation, the  mercy-seat  which  covers  our  sins:  He  will 
not  expose  the  short-comings  of  his  clients,  nor  allow  the 
covering  of  the  mercy- seat  to  "be  lifted  to  discover  our 
sins  which  are  under  it. 

4.  It  is  alleged  also  that  as  we  are  to  be  judged  by 
the  Gospel,  and  not  by  the  Law,  therefore  our  sins  will 
not  be  published,  for  the  Gospel  has  forever  pardoned 
them.  And  finally^  it  is  said,  the  sins  of  believers  will 
not  be  made  known  to  the  universe  on  the  day  of  judg- 
ment, for  such  an  expose  would  overwhelm  them  with 
shame,  whereas  the  Church  is  to  be  presented  at  that  time 
to  the  Father  holy,  without  blemish,  not  having  spot  or 
wrinkle  or  any  such  thing.  While  so  much  may  be  said 
on  both  sides,  and  many  of  our  ablest  theologians  have 
confessed  themselves  unable  to  come  to  a  decision,  it  does 
not  become  me  to  dogmatize  at  all ;  but  I  cannot  help 
inclining  to  the  first  view :  namely,  that  such  a  recogni- 
tion, at  least  of  the  sins  of  Christ's  people,  will  then  be 
manifested  as  shall  exalt  the  exceeding  greatness  of  His 
Grace.  The  texts  just  quoted  on  the  other  side  are  capa- 
ble of  a  clear  explanation  without  proving  the  points  they 
are  quoted  for. 

The  time  admonishes  me  that  I  must  close  this  discourse. 
In  doing  which,  allow  me  two  remarks.  I.  While  angels 
and  men  shall  be  spectators  of  the  judgment,  they  will 
also  all  he  interested  in  its  awful  scenes.  Holy  angels 
assist  and  approve.  And  every  man  and  every  evil  spirit 
will  both  feel  in  himself,  even  in  his  own  condemnation, 
the  justice  and  the  goodness  of  God,  and  see  the  same  in 
the  judgment  of  others.  The  uttered  and  executed  sen- 
tences of  the  last  day  will  be  exactly  according  to  what 
every  one  has  read  beforehand  in  his  own  conscience, 
and  has  been  reading  all  the  time  from  his  death  till  the 


FORESHADOWS    OF   THE   JUDGMEN'T.  855 

judgment  in  his  own  heart.  The  decisions  of  the  last  day- 
will  be  as  it  were  transcripts  from  the  consciences  of  the 
parties  judged.  Men  are  happy  or  miserable  immediately 
after  death,  but  their  case  is  not  fully  made  up,  for  all 
their  works  are  not  then  matured.  Some  men' s  sins  are 
open  and  go  beforehand  to  judgment,  but  other  men's 
sins  follow  after  them.  This  is  clearly  taught  by  our 
Lord  in  one  of  his  parables,  in  the  anxiety  of  the  rich  man 
about  the  coming  of  his  brothers  to  the  same  place  of  tor- 
ment with  himself.  And  also  in  the  voice  from  heaven, 
saying,  *'  Blessed  are  the  dead  which  die  in  the  Lord  from 
henceforth  ;  yea,  saith  the  spirit,  that  they  may  rest  from 
their  labors  ;  and  their  works  do  follow  them." 

There  are  many  fearful  cases  that  cannot  be  fully  made 
up  for  judgment  till  the  last  day  itself.  Their  records 
are  not  complete.  There  remains  a  reckoning  to  come 
after  death  for  those  sins  to  which  men  are  accessories, 
though  committed  long  after  they  have  themselves  left 
this  scene  of  action.  A  man's  influence  is  immortal. 
The  sins  of  ill-educated  children  are  to  be  laid  to  the 
account,  in  some  measure,  at  least,  of  their  parents ;  and 
so  the  influence  of  teachers  on  their  pupils,  of  the  heads 
of  business  houses  over  the  young  people  in  their  employ  ; 
and,  in  short,  of  all  the  corruption  and  evil  that  has  or 
may  result  from  the  example  one  sets,  or  the  opinions  and 
doctrines  one  publishes.  The  harvest  that  a  bad  book 
or  fiendish  print  may  reap  for  the  garner  of  the  authors 
and  publishers  at  the  last  day,  it  is  beyond  the  power  of 
any  mortal  tongue  or  pen  to  describe.  Beware  of  your 
influence  upon  others. 

II.  My  second  and  last  remark  is,  that  the  Bible  view 
of  the  day  of  future  and  final  retribution  proves  the 
necessity  of  regeneration  and  sanctification  hy  the  Holy 


356  CHEIST   JUDOmG    THE   WOELD. 

Spirit.  According  to  the  Scriptures,  so  minnte  and  exact 
are  the  records  for  the  Judgment- day,  that  our  thoughts 
and  words,  as  well  as  deeds,  are  to  be  scrupulously 
examined.  We  are  then  to  answer  for  the  meanest  as 
well  as  for  the  loftiest  of  our  thoughts  ;  and  so  awfully 
thorough  and  just  will  the  scrutiny  of  the  last  day  be, 
that  with  an  unerring  hand  all  the  threads  of  the  intents 
of  our  heart  will  be  traced  out,  and  all  the  complications 
of  the  web  of  life  will  be  unravelled,  from  the  beginning 
to  the  end.  It  may  be  that  comparatively  our  world  is 
as  a  grain  of  sand  on  the  shores  of  eternity,  yet  we 
know  that  God  hath  prepared  his  Throne  in  the  heavens 
and  that  His  Kingdom  ruleth  over  all.  We  know  that 
the  hairs  of  our  head  are  numbered — that  a  sparrow 
cannot  fall  to  the  ground  without  the  knowledge  of  our 
heavenly  Father.  The  very  same  reasons  and  arguments 
and  convictions  on  the  human  heart,  and  testimonies  of 
Holy  Scripture,  therefore,  which  establish  the  existence 
of  God  and  of  his  moral  government  over  the  world, 
prove  at  the  same  time  that  all  the  complications  implied 
in  the  holding  of  a  general  judgment  are  clear  as  day  to 
God' s  all-seeing  eye,  and  quite  as  easily  held  in  his  Eter- 
nal Mind  and  Omnipotent  Hand  as  the  minute  and  exact 
and  vastly  complicated  works  of  creation  and  Providence. 
And  if  the  All-wise  and  All-powerful  has  made  every 
atom  of  the  material  universe  subject  to  His  laws,  which 
is  certainly  true,  why  is  He  not  as  supreme  over  the 
intellect  and  the  moral  feelings?  If  the  Almighty  has 
arranged  for  weighing  and  adjusting  every  particle  of 
matter,  and  does  actually  control  it,  is  He  not  quite  as 
able  to  weigh  and  balance  every  principle  of  the  heart, 
that  has  been  called  into  play,  through  every  day  and 
hour  and  moment  of  our  lives  ?  He  knoweth  our  frame  : 
He  knoweth  that  we  are  but  dust.  We  must  then  he  horn 
again.     We  must  be  created  anew  in  Christ  Jesus.    We 


THE   OBJECT   OF   LIFE.  357 

must  be  restored  to  the  image  in  which  we  were  created, 
and  this  work  can  only  be  done  by  God's  own  Spirit. 
We  cannot  stand  in  judgment  and  answer  for  our 
thoughts,  no  more  than  for  our  words  and  deeds,  with- 
out the  new  creating  and  cleansing  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  Our  prayer  should  therefore  continually  be  : 
**  Create  in  me  a  clean  heart,  0  God ;  and  renew  a  right 
spirit  within  me." 

The  carnal  mind  is  at  enmity  with  God.  The  great 
object,  therefore,  to  be  kept  in  view  by  us  all  the  time  is, 
that  we  may  be  clothed  with  the  righteousness  of  Christ, 
to  find  mercy  of  the  Lord  through  the  propitiation  that  is 
made  for  our  sins — to  bring  into  captivity  every  thought 
to  the  obedience  of  Christ,  that  we  may  be  conformed 
more  and  more  to  the  pattern  of  Him  who  is  the  bright- 
ness of  the  Father's  glory  and  the  express  image  of  his 
person.  And  may  God  grant  unto  us  grace,  that  at  the 
general  resurrection  in  the  last  day,  we  may  be  found 
acceptable  in  His  sight,  and  receive  the  blessing  which 
His  well-beloved  Son,  our  Lord,  shall  then  pronounce  on 
all  who  love  and  fear  Him,  saying  :  "Come,  ye  blessed  of 
my  Father,  receive  the  kingdom  prepared  for  you  from  the 
beginning  of  the  world."  Grant  this,  we  beseech  Thee,  O 
merciful  Father,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Mediator  and 
Redeemer.     Amen. 


358  EULES  OF  chkist's  final  judgment. 


XYII. 


RULES   OP   CHRIST'S  FINAL  JUDGMENT. 


"  And  I  saw  a  great  white  throne,  and  him  that  sat  on  it,  from  whose  face  the 
earth  and  the  heaven  fled  away ;  and  there  was  no  place  for  them. 

"  And  I  saw  the  dead,  small  and  great,  stand  before  God ;  and  the  books  were 
opened :  and  another  book  was  opened,  which  is  the  book  of  hfe :  and  the  dead 
were  judged  out  of  those  things  which  were  written  in  the  books,  according  to 
their  works." — Ret.  xx.  II,  12. 

In  some  measure  you  have  in  your  minds  from  the  pre- 
ceding Discourses  the  history  of  the  Article  of  our  Creed, 
which  is  in  these  words :  '^From  thence  He  shall  come  to 
judge  the  quick  and  the  dead."  You  have  learned  some- 
thing of  the  reasons  why  it  was  adopted  by  the  ancient 
churches,  and  why  we  should  retain  and  believe  it 
just  as  it  is.  The  place  and  the  time  of  the  general  Judg- 
ment have  been  spoken  of.  It  has  been  found  that  Jesus 
Christ  in  his  perfect  human  nature  is  to  appear  visibly 
in  the  clouds  of  heaven  with  his  holy  angels,  with  power 
and  great  glory,  as  the  Judge  of  quick  and  dead.  Rea- 
sons also  have  been  given  why  God  hath  appointed  a  day 
in  which  to  judge  the  world  in  righteousness  by  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  The  ends  to  be  accomplished  by  the  gen- 
eral judgment,  speaking  with  reverence,  seem  to  be 
worthy  of  the  Creator  and  of  his  works  and  ways.     The 


THE  JUDGMEJ^T   TO    COME.  359 

manner  of  conducting  the  assembly  of  quick  and  dead,, 
which  terms  are  co-extensive  with  all  the  moral  agents 
that  have  .been  on  our  globe,  at  least  all  of  our  race  and 
all  evil  spirits,  has  impressed  us,  I  hope,  with  the  solem- 
nity,, glory,,  and  magnificence  of  the  event.  It  only- 
remains,  according  to  our  method,  to  speak  of  the  Rules 
OF  Pkoceeding  according  to  which  the  last  judgment  is 
to  be  held,  and  sentence  pronounced  and  executed,  and 
to  make  a  few  reflections  on  the  awful  scene.  And  if  I 
am  not  very  much  mistaken,  all  attempts  at  rhetoric  or 
impassioned  oratory  are  wholly  out  of  place  when  directed 
toward  such  a  subject  as  this.  I  am  aware  that  Oratiots^s 
by  one  of  the  greatest  Christian  orators,  and  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  men  of  modern  times,  were  delivered 
and  published  on  the  ''Judgment  to  Come,"  and  that 
much  art  and  oratorical  machinery  has  been  used  by  great 
French  preachers,  and  perhaps  by  others,  in  preaching  on 
the  awful  Judgment-day  of  Almighty  God  ;  still  I  cannot 
help  thinking  it  is  misplaced.  The  fact,  the  simple  fact 
itself  that  there  is  a  judgment  to  come — a  day  appointed 
by  our  Maker  in  the  which  He  will  judge  the  world  in 
righteousness  by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  that  when 
He  comes  to  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead,  we  must  every 
one  appear  before  him,  and  stand  at  his  Judgment- seat, 
this  fact  itself  is  more  awfully  eloquent  than  any  decla- 
mation can  make  it.  On  such  a  theme,  the  best  possible 
effort  is  to  get  the  simple,  awful  subject  into  the  mind 
and  upon  the  heart,  as  nearly  as  possible  in  the  way  it  is 
presented  to  us  by  the  inspired  writers  themselves.  The 
text  is  a  palpable  allusion,  if  not  to  the  passages  them- 
selves, yet  certainly  to  the  same  customs,  and  employs  the 
same  imagery,  that  we  have  in  Matthew  xxv.  and  Daniel 
vii.  9,  10. 

1.  Note  the  utter  destruction  of  the  kingdom  of  Satan, 


360  RULES  OF  Christ's  final  judgment. 

the  complete  overthrow  of  the  powers  of  darkness  (Rev. 
XX.  9  and  10),  which  conies  before  the  last  judgment. 

2.  Here  is  a  description  of  the  Day  of  Judgment.  And 
truly  may  we  say,  with  the  pious  Matthew  Henry,  as  we 
read  it :  "The  Lord  help  us  firmly  to  believe  this  doc- 
trine of  the  judgment  to  come."  "  And  I  saw,"  says  the 
Apostle,  ''a  great  white  throne."  The  same  our  Lord 
speaks  of,  saying  :  "  When  the  Son  of  Man  shall  come  in 
his  glory,  and  all  the  holy  angels  with  him,  then  shall  He 
sit  upon  the  throne  of  his  glory."  The  same  that  Daniel 
saw :  ''I  beheld,  till  the  thrones  were  cast  down,  and  the 
Ancient  of  days  did  sit,  whose  garment  was  white  as 
snow,  and  the  hair  of  his  head  like  the  pure  wool ;  his 
throne  was  like  the  fiery  flame,  and  his  wheels  as  burning 
fire.  A  fiery  stream  issued  and  came  forth  from  before 
him  ;  thousands  ministered  unto  him,  and  ten  thousand 
times  ten  thousand  stood  before  him  ;  the  judgment  was 
set,  and  the  books  were  opened.  And  I  saw  in  the  night 
visions,  and  behold,  one  like  the  Son  of  Man  came  with 
the  clouds  of  heaven,  and  came  to  the  Ancient  of  days." 
vii.  9-13. 

I  do  not  say  that  the  events  referred  to  by  Daniel  are 
identical  with  the  event  described  in  Matt.  xxv.  31-46, 
and  in  the  text.  Nor  is  there  any  direct  connection 
between  them  in  point  of  time,  or  as  of  cause  and  effect, 
that  I  am  aware  of.  But  the  imagery  is  essentially  the 
same.  And  no  one  should  press  the  figures  used  beyond 
what  the  nature  of  the  scene  fully  justifies.  Reference 
is  had  in  the  mind,  in  all  these  passages,  to  oriental  cus- 
toms. The  Rabbins  were  constantly  in  the  habit  of 
speaking  of  the  opening  of  the  books  before  the  Throne 
of  Judgment,  as  if  allegations  were  then  to  be  made 
out  of  the  records,  the  indictment  read  and  proof  sub- 


TIIE   THRONE   AND   THE   BOOKS.  361 

mitted,  after  the  manner  of  liiiman  courts,  or  as  in  the 
calling  and  sitting  of  a  grand  judicial  convention  or 
Sanhedrim. 

A  great  throne  here  means  a  very  Tiigli  throne  ;  and 
white^  that  is,  shining,  refulgent,  intimates  its  purity, 
equity,  justice,  righteousness.  The  great  white  throne  is 
the  Throne  of  His  glory. 

And  Mm  that  sat  on  it — the  Son  of  Man,  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  but  appearing  now  in  such  awful  majesty, 
that  heaven  and  earth  fled  away  ;  and  there  was  found 
no  place  for  them.  As  if  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  grew 
pale,  and  were  overshadowed  by  the  brightness  of  his 
coming  ;  and  that  He  was  all  in  all,  the  fulness  of  all. 
The  language  does  not  imply  necessarily  the  annihilation 
of  the  material  universe,  nor  the  total  destruction  of  our 
solar  system.  But  it  does  imply  the  destruction  of  all 
evil,  and  the  impossibility  of  any  escape  from  the  all- 
seeing  eye  of  the  Judge. 

And  I  saw  the  dead — all  the  dead,  as  well  as  all 
living,  small  and  great,  stand  before  God.  ''And  before 
Him  shall  be  gathered  all  nations;"  and  all  the  indi- 
viduals of  all  nations  and  ages.  The  sea,  the  land,  the 
grave — "death  and  hell  delivered  up  the  dead  which 
were  in  them  :  and  they  were  judged  every  man  accord- 
in":  to  their  works." 


'O 


''And  the  'books  were  opened :  and  another  hoolc  was 
opened^  which  is  the  Book  of  Life:  and  the  dead  were 
judged  out  of  the  things  which  were  written  in  the  hooks, 
according  to  their  works. ^''  The  imagery  here,  though 
taken  from  human  courts  of  justice,  is  painfully  emphatic 
and  minute.  The  scene  is  on  this  wise.  Here  is  the 
judgment  throne.  Here  are  the  laws  enacted  and  pro- 
mulgated by  the  All- wise  and  Almighty  Creator.     Here 


362  EULES  OF  Christ's  final  judgment. 

are  His  creatures,  and  here  are  the  records  of  their  lives, 
of  their  thoughts,  words,  and  deeds.  It  is  at  once 
apparent  that  the  acts  and  characters  of  the  persons 
to  be  judged  are  far  from  being  in  conformity  with  the 
statutes.  The  'books  are  opened;  namely,  the  records  of 
common  sense  and  reason,  proclaiming  the  propriety, 
fitness,  and  prudence  of  things,  all  of  which  shows  that 
the  laws  of  God  were  reasonable,  just,  and  good,  and  that 
there  is  no  valid  excuse  for  having  violated  them.  And 
the  book  of  providence,  common,  special,  and  universal, 
is  opened.  And  so  also  are  the  hook^  of  Divine  omnis- 
cience^ of  God^s  remembrance,  and  the  book  of  every 
sinner's  own  con^science.  And  the  Book  of  Revelation, 
of  nature  and  of  law,  natural  and  revealed,  and  by  all 
these  records  the  dead  are  condemned.  But  now  another 
book  is  opened,  which  is  the  Book  of  Life.  No  defence  is 
supposed  to  be  made,  for  the  reason  that  none  is  possible. 
No  excuse  can  be  offered.  All  are  speechless  ;  even  those 
who  are  saved  are  saved  by  free  sovereign  grace.  They 
have  no  claims  to  plead,  but  their  pardon.  The  Book  of 
Life,  in  a  strict  sense,  is  opposed  to  the  book  of  death,  the 
second  containing  the  names  of  the  condemned.  It  is  the 
record  of  Christ' s  people,  of  those  whom  the  Father  gave 
him  ;  but  in  a  more  general  sense  we  may  understand  by 
it  the  whole  Revelation  of  His  grace,  in  which  repent- 
ance is  preached,  pardon  offered,  and  eternal  life  prom- 
ised, to  all  who  shall  believe  upon  Him. 

Thus  we  see  from  this  brief  summary  of  the  proceed- 
ings, as  set  before  us  in  the  text,  that  though  the  expres- 
sions are  strongly  figurative,  and  after  the  style  of  the 
Rabbins  on  Daniel  vii.,  still,  awfully  grand  truths  are 
embodied  in  the  passage.  There  is  a  fearful  speciality  in 
this  trial.  All  the  persons  are  judged  out  of  those  things 
which  were  written   in  the  books,  according  to  their 


ACCORDING   TO   OUR    WORKS.  363 

works,  and  the  issues  of  the  trial  are,  that  whosoever  of 
all  that  were  judged  was  not  found  written  in  the  Book 
of  Life  was  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire.  The  Judge  *'  shall 
separate  them  one  from  another,"  &c.  E-ead  Matt.  xxv. 
37-46. 

Now,  according  to  their  worTcs  does  not  exclude  their 
faith.  For  their  works  are  nothing  but  the  fruits  of  their 
faith — proofs  whether  their  faith  was  true  or  false.  It  is 
onl}^  by  its  works  that  faith  can  be  visibly  judged.  IN'o 
one  can  suppose  that  repentance,  faith,  and  prayer  are 
excluded  altogether  out  of  the  account  taken  of  the  good 
works  which  are  acknowledged  by  the  King,  when  He 
welcomes  the  blessed  of  his  Father  into  the  kingdom  pre- 
pared for  them  from  the  foundation  of  the  world. 

According  to  their  worTcs  implies  there  are  degrees 
of  guilt,  and  consequently  of  punishment.  Our  Lord 
clearly  refers  to  an  appointed  day  of  final  judgment  in 
his  woes  upon  Capernaum,  Chorazin,  and  Bethsaida,  and 
that  it  would  be  more  tolerable  in  the  day  of  judgment 
for  Tyre  and  Sidon,  and  for  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  than 
for  those  who  had  the  offer  of  His  mercy,  but  rejected  it. 
The  greatest  guilt  will  rest  on  them  who  have  had  the 
most  light,  the  greatest  gifts  and  talents,  and  neglected  or 
abused  them  the  most.  Men  will  be  judged  according  to 
what  they  had,  whether  with  one  talent,  or  two,  or  fi.YQ, 
or  ten.  They  will  be  judged  according  to  the  dispensa- 
tion under  which  they  lived,  whether  of  the  Patriarchs, 
or  under  Moses  or  Christ,  Socrates  or  Confucius,  and  the 
sentence  will  be  pronounced  according  to  the  compliance 
or  non-compliance  with  the  rules  of  the  dispensation 
under  which  the  persons  judged  have  lived.  And  as 
every  man's  conscience  condemns  him,  so  those  who 
have  not  had  the  written  law  of  Moses,  nor  the  light  of 


364  EULE3  OF  Christ's  final  judgment. 

the  Gospel,  are  condemned,  not  for  neglecting  or  despi- 
sing what  they  never  had  any  knowledge  of,  but  for 
not  living  according  to  the  light  they  had.  The  greatest 
guilt  will  therefore  rest  on  those  who  have  the  law  of 
nature,  the  light  of  tradition,  the  teachings  of  conscience, 
and  the  revelation  of  God's  will,  and  the  preaching  of 
the  Gospel,  if  their  names  are  not  found  in  the  Book  of 
Life.  He  that  believeth  not  is  condemned  already — the 
wrath  of  God  abideth  on  him  that  hath  not  believed  on 
the  Son  of  God. 

Allow  me  to  present  you  here  with  a  paragraph  from 
Dr.  Wails ^  on  this  point:  *'To  make  this  matter  yet 
plainer,  and  to  reconcile  the  different  representations 
which  are  given  of  our  justification  by  faith  in  this  life, 
and  the  importance  attached  to  our  justification  by  our 
words  and  works  at  the  day  of  judgment,  it  must  be  con- 
sidered that  every  Christian  who  is  admitted  into  heaven, 
may  be  said  to  have  a  twofold  right  to  it ;  namely,  there 
is  a  right  of  inheritance  which  is  by  faith,  whereby  we 
are  justified,  and  become  the  children  of  God,  and  joint- 
heirs  with  Christ  (Gal.  iii.  26  ;  Kom.  viii.  17) ;  being  inter- 
ested by  the  free  gift  of  God  in  the  benefit  of  his  Son's  pur- 
chase, that  is,  the  inlieritance  of  heaven  :  and  there  is  also 
a  right  of  congruity  or  fitness  (meetness  or  preparation 
for),  which  arises  from  actual  holiness  of  life  and  heart, 
whereby  we  are  prepared  for  the  actual  possession  of  this 
inheritance.  So  an  infant  may  have  a  right  of  inheritance 
to  his  father' s  estate  by  birth  or  adoption  ;  but  he  has  not 
the  right  of  congruity,  fitness,  or  qualifications  for  possess- 
ing the  estate  till  he  grow  up  to  twenty- one  years,  or  to 
the  age  of  discretion  and  capacity  to  enjoy  it,  and  then  he 
is  put  into  the  possession."     Now  it  seems  to  me  this  dis- 

*  Watts's  Works,  vol.  iv.  p.  39. 


HOW  THE  HEATHEN  AEE  JUDGED.        865 

tinction  is  clear  and  proper.  We  may  Ibe  said  to  be  justi- 
fied by  faith  and  by  works,  and  the  one  implies  the  other. 
It  is  certainly  by  faith  alone  we  are  justified,  and  have 
peace  with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  and  it  is 
just  as  certain  we  must  be  sanctified,  and  that  every  man 
will  be  judged  according  to  his  works — according  to  the 
deeds  done  in  the  body. 

1.  When  it  is  asked,  what  is  to  be  the  rule  according 
to  which  sentence  is  to  be  pronounced  upon  those  who 
have  not  had  the  written  Word  of  God  or  the  preached 
Gospel  of  his  grace  ?  the  answer  is,  the  sentence  will  in 
every  case  be  in  exact  conformity  to  strict  justice.  For  as 
many  as  have  sinned  without  law,  shall  also  perish  with- 
out law  ;  and  as  many  as  have  sinned  in  the  law  shall  be 
judged  by  the  law.  E-om.  ii.  5-16.  A  heathen  will  not 
be  condemned  for  rejecting  the  Gospel,  for  it  was' not 
offered  to  him.  But  he  will  be  condemned  for  what  his 
own  heart  condemns  him,  and  for  not  knowing  God. 
Their  guilt  will  lie  in  this :  ' '  Because  that  which  may  be 
known  of  God  is  manifest  in  them,  for  God  hath  showed 
it  unto  them.  For  the  invisible  things  of  Him  from  the 
creation  of  the  world  are  clearly  seen,  being  understood 
by  the  things  that  are  made,  even  his  eternal  power  and 
Godhead  ;  so  that  they  are  without  excuse.  Because  that 
when  they  knew  God,  they  glorified  Him  not  as  God, 
neither  were  they  thankful ;  but  became  vain  in  their 
imaginations,  and  their  foolish  heart  was  darkened. 
Who  changed  the  truth  of  God  into  a  lie,  and  wor- 
shipped and  served  the  creature  more  than  the  Creator, 
who  is  blessed  forever.  Amen.  For  this  cause  God 
gave  them  up  unto  vile  affections.  For  even  their 
women  did  change  the  natural  use  into  that  which  is 
against  nature.  And  even  as  they  did  not  like  to  retain 
God  in  their  knowledge,   God   gave   them   over  to   a 


366  RULES  OF  Christ's  fiital  judgment. 

reprobate  mind,  to  do  those  things  which  are  not  con- 
venient."    Rom.  i.  19-28. 

2.  The  method  of  the  judgment  will  he  according  to 
righteousness.  Judgment  will  then  be  laid  to  the  line 
and  righteousness  to  the  plummet.  The  dead  and  the 
living  changed  will  be  judged,  out  of  the  things  written  in 
the  books  which  will  then  be  opened,  according  to  their 
works.  There  will  be  no  passion,  prejudice,  partiality, 
mistake  or  error,  nor  any  arbitrary  severity.  The  eternal 
principles  of  right  will  be  observed  in  all  the  proceedings. 
The  conscience  of  all  moral  beings  will  testify  that  the 
world  is  judged  in  righteousness.  The  mercy  shown  in 
that  day  will  be  through  perfect  righteousness.  God 
will  be  faithful  to  himself,  to  his  laws,  and  to  his  Son  and 
to  his  promises.  As  Christ  is  the  end  of  the  law  for 
righteousness  to  every  one  that  belie veth,  and  as  there  is 
no  condemnation  to  them  that  are  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  as 
Christ  has  fulfilled  the  law,  magnified  it,  and  made  it  hon- 
orable, Gfod  can  now  be  just  and  yet  justify  them  that 
believe.  So  the  sinner  who  is  found  penitent  and  believ- 
ing, is  justified  and  saved.  Divine  Justice  is  satisfied 
with  the  sacrifice  of  Christ,  and  beams  brightly  because 
of  the  atonement  which  He  made,  and  the  sanctification 
He  has  wrought.  Sin  is  punished,  but  the  sinner  is  saved 
through  the  righteousness  of  Christ.  But  let  us  never 
forget  that  there  is  no  escape  in  that  day,  unless  we  are 
pardoned  for  Christ's  sake.  We  must  be  sheltered  under 
the  covering  wings  of  the  Almighty  Saviour. 

3.  It  deserves  to  he  noted.,  that  the  ^pronouncing  of  the 
sentence  of  ahsolution  comes  hefore  that  of  condemnation. 
This  order  of  proceeding  with  the  twofold  sentence  may 
have  been  intended  to  teach  us  that  God  delights  more  in 
mercy  than  in  wrath— is  more  ready  to  forgive  than  to 


GOOD    WORKS   ARE   FRUITS.  367 

condemn.  In  the  mean  time,  too,  every  word  of  approba- 
tion towards  the  godly,  uttered  in  the  hearing  of  the  incor- 
rigibly wicked,  will  add  to  their  anguish. 

The  approbation  of  the  godly  will  be  wholly  of  free 
Grace  and  according  to  the  riches  of  Divine  Mercy.  It  is 
not  here  required  that  we  prove  that  salvation  is  by  Grace 
and  not  by  works.  For  the  works  approved  of  in  the 
day  of  judgment  are  not  without  flaws — stained  with 
numerous  blemishes,  and  if  accepted,  it  is  through  Grace. 
Nor  would  they  have  ever  been  undertaken  or  executed 
without  the  mighty  working  of  God' s  Spirit,  nor  are  they 
ever  spoken  of  in  the  Scriptures  as  having  merited  the 
favor  of  God.  The  rewards  given  are  all  gracious.  The 
reasons  for  making  mention  of  the  services  of  believers 
are :  First  To  show  that  they  are  believers,  and  their 
good  works  are  the  evidences  of  their  faith,  fruits  of  the 
Spirit  of  God  which  has  been  sent  forth  into  their  hearts. 
Secondly.  To  show  that  they  are  indeed  meet  for  their 
inheritance  in  glory.  Their  good  works  prove  that  they 
are  in  union  with  Christ,  and  have  friendship  with  God. 
For  they  are  the  fruits  of  the  spirit  of  adoption  given 
unto  them.  These  good  works  prove  they  have  sought 
the  Kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteousness — proofs  that 
they  walked  by  the  Spirit  and  not  after  the  flesh — proofs 
that  as  Christ  was  interceding  for  them  above,  so  His 
Spirit  dwelt  in  them  and  interceded  in  them  in  a  corre- 
sponding work — that  as  He  was  preparing  a  place  for 
them  in  his  Father's  honse  of  many  mansions,  so  He  was 
preparing  them  for  their  place  in  glory. 

4.  You  note  that  the  day  of  the  general  judg-ment  is 
made  a  distinctive^  prominent  day  in  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
''But  the  day  of  the  Lord  will  come  as  a  thief  in  the 
night,"  says  St.  Pete3?ff=3^*d^so  the  coming  of  our  Lord 


368  EULE3  OF  Christ's  final  judgment. 

is  often  referred  to  as  a  prominent  and  great  event.  As 
it  marks  the  end  of  time  in  the  sense  of  merging  it  into 
eternity,  it  is  the  last  day,  the  day  of  final,  universal 
judgment,  when  Christ  is  to  be  glorilied,  and  all  the  attri- 
butes of  God  will  be  seen  to  be  perfect  and  glorious.  His 
Justice,  Goodness,  Mercy,  Holiness,  Immutability,  Omni- 
potence, Omniscience,  and  Truth  and  Grace,  will  then 
all  be  made  so  manifest,  that  every  intelligent  creature 
will  unite  in  saying :  Just  and  true  are  all  thy  ways, 
Lord  God  Almighty. 

5.  In  reference  to  the  execution  of  the  sentence  : 

First.  Observe  the  order  is  the  reverse  of  that  observed 
in  pronouncing  it.  "And  these  shall  go  away  into  ever- 
lasting punishment,  but  the  righteous  into  life  eternal." 
The  pronouncing  of.  the  absolution  and  welcome  of  the 
godly  comes  before  the  condemning  of  the  wicked,  but 
the  wicked  are  sent  away  into  everlasting  punishment 
before  the  righteous  go  into  life  eternal.  In  the  execution 
of  the  sentence,  then,  there  is  a  fulfilment  of  the  Scrip- 
ture, which  says:  The  righteous  hath  joy  and  shall 
increase  his  joy,  "  when  he  seeth  the  vengeance." 

Secondly.  To  both  the  righteous  and  the  wicked  there 
is  the  same  fixed,  determinate  idea  of  a  place  for  them  to 
dwell  in  or  to  inhabit — not  more  so  for  one  than  for  the 
other.  There  is  equal  positive,  absolute  certainty  of 
character  in  the  wicked  as  in  the  righteous.  One  goes 
into  life  eternal,  the  other  to  endure  punishment  ever- 
lasting. 

Thirdly,  Bternity  is  equally  attributed  to  the  existence 
and  place  of  the  abode  of  both — not  of  one  more  than  of 
the  other.  The  duration  of  the  punishment  is  expressed 
by  the  very  same  word  that  expresses  the  duration  of  the 
life  of  the  righteous.     The  terms  used  and  the  justice  of 


THE   REALITIES    OF   THE   EXECUTION.  369 

God  clearly  teach  that  the  same  duration,  continuance  of 
existence,  awaits  both  the  godly  and  the  ungodly. 

Fourthly.  Nor  is  the  sentence  a  mere  negative  one. 
The  mere  going  away  does  not  exhaust  it.  The  righteous 
go  into  life  eternal — a  life  that  is  to  be  filled  with  joy  and 
service — with  enjoyments  which  only  those  who  love 
God  can  ever  know.  It  is  a  life  of  service  and  of  pleas- 
ure— a  life  of  knowledge  and  love  ever  increasing  and 
never  to  be  diminished  or  to  have  an  end.  The  wicked, 
on  the  other  hand,  not  only  lose  all  this,  but  they  are 
driven  away  from  the  presence  of  the  glory  of  God. 
They  lose  every  thing  that  makes  heaven,  and  to  this  are 
superadded  the  pains  of  hell.  They  go  away  into  ever- 
lasting punishment.  They  depart  from  the  glory  of 
God  to  the  perdition  of  devils.  They  depart  into 
everlasting  fire,  prepared  for  the  devil  and  his  angels. 
And  even  if  it  is  admitted,  as  some  say,  that  this  lan- 
guage and  similar  Scriptural  phrases  are  not  to  be  inter- 
preted in  a  literal  but  in  a  figurative  sense,  the  meaning 
is  essentially  the  same.  Material  fire,  and  a  literal  pit 
vomiting  forth  fire  and  smoke,  is  not  at  all  necessary  to 
constitute  the  eternal  hell  of  the  finally  and  incorrigibly 
wicked.  Material  elements  in  their  punishment  are  not 
essential.  The  chief  ingredients  of  their  suffering  will  be 
within,  of  the  conscience — self-condemned — and  upon 
this  the  outpouring  of  the  wrath  of  God  Almighty.  If 
the  Word  of  God  describes  the  torments  of  the  lost  in  the 
world  to  come  by  metaphors  and  figures  of  speech,  it  is 
because  such  is  the  weakness  and  poverty  of  language 
that  it  is  not  sufficient  for  describing  the  realities  in  sim- 
ple words.  And  if  the  figures  used— which  are  the  most 
awful  that  can  be  found — come  short  of  the  things  them- 
selves, what  must  the  realities  be  %  Truly  it  will  be  an 
awful  thing  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  living  God  as  an 

24 


370  RULES  OF  Christ's  final  judgment. 

unreconciled  sinner — as  one  who  has  despised  so  great  a 
salvation ! 

6.  The  doctrine  of  a  future  general  judgment  is  not  to 
be  so  understood  as  to  stand  in  the  way  of  each  man 
passing  under  a  particular  and  personal  judgment,  imme- 
diately after  death.  The  Bible  tells  us  the  soul  at  death 
returns  to  God  who  gave  it,  and  must  then  receive  evi- 
dence of  his  favor  or  of  his  condemnation,  and  conse- 
quently pass  at  once  to  a  state  of  happiness  which  is 
Paradise  or  heaven,  or  into  a  state  of  misery,  which  is 
hell.  This  is  not  the  place  for  me  to  speak  of  the  latitude 
with  which  the  terms  heaven  or  hell  are  used,  nor  of  the 
degrees,  spheres,  or  mansions  there  may  be  in  the  ampli- 
tudes of  the  world  to  come.  It  is  perfectly  clear,  how- 
ever, from  the  parable  of  our  Lord  about  Lazarus  and 
the  rich  man,  that  happiness  or  misery  immediately 
follows  death,  and  also  that  the  state  into  which  men 
pass  at  death  may  be  increased  in  intensity.  And  our 
Lord  promised  the  penitent  thief  on  the  cross  that  hB 
should  be  with  Him  that  day  in  Paradise.  And  accord- 
ing to  Peter^  the  souls  of  those  who  refused  to  believe^ 
Noah's  Gospel,  were  in  the  prison  of  hell  when  he  wrote,  ,^ 
suflering  the  vengeance  of  God.  And  nothing  is  plainer  ' 
in  PauVs  Epistles  than  that  he  conceived  of  but  two 
possible  states  for  believers :  namely,  present  in  the  body 
in  this  world,  or  absent  from  the  body  and  present  with 
the  Lord  in  a  state  of  happiness.  But  it  is  not  seen  how 
these  passages  of  holy  Scripture  are  in  conflict  in  any 
way  with  those  that  speak  of  a  future  general  judgment. 

It  is  evident,  for  two  reasons  at  least,  that  a  general 
judgment  must  follow  the  private  sentence  that  is  passed 
on  individuals.  First.  The  justice  of  God  must  be  made 
manifest  to  all  the  universe,  in  order  that  He  may  be 
adored  by  His  intelligent  creatures.     It  must  be  seen  that 


ALL   DIFFICULTIES   OVERCOME.  371 

He  is  just  when  He  judgeth,  and  righteous  when  He 
condemneth.  He  must  appear  to  be,  as  well  as  actually 
be,  just,  holy,  and  good.  Secondly.  It  is  necessary  that 
a  future  public  judgment  should  follow  after  the  personal 
judgment  has  passed,  because  neither  all  the  penalties  of  a 
man' s  sin,  nor  all  the  rewards  of  his  well-doing  are  ren- 
dered up  at  his  death,  nor  can  they  be  before  the  general 
resurrection.  This  point  was  considered  at  some  length 
in  the  last  Discourse. 

7.  If  in  the  proceedings  of  the  general  Judgment,  and 
in  many  points  connected  with  the  events  of  that  day, 
grave  difficulties  are  suggested,  we  should  remember  that 
we  are  finite  and  very  feeble,  and  of  very  limited  under- 
standings— that  our  globe  itself,  the  theatre  of  so  many 
events  which  seem  to  us  so  vast,  is  only  a  grain  of  sand  of 
exceedingly  small  proportions  compared  with  the  vast- 
ness  of  the  Universe  of  God.  What  difficulties  are  there 
which  Omnipotence  and  Omniscience  cannot  remove  or 
overcome  as  to  the  place  of  the  judgment,  the  assembling 
of  the  parties  to  be  judged,  and  the  examination  of  the 
records  of  guilt,  and  the  pronouncing  and  execution  of  the 
sentences?  "'God  will  bring  to  light  the  hidden  things 
of  darkness,  and  will  make  manifest  the  counsels  of  the 
hearts  of  all  men."  Conscience  will  then  be  set  free  and 
unmasked.  The  very  elements  of  nature  will  give  up  the 
echoes  of  human  crime. 

8.  There  is  no  argument  against  the  minuteness  or  ex- 
actness of  the  individual  judgment  and  sufferings  of  the 
ungodly  after  the  day  of  the  general  judgment  that  does 
not  lie  equally  against  the  minuteness  of  Divine  Provi- 
dence now,  and  the  fact  of  individual  suffering  in  this 
world.  And  as  the  Providence  of  God  over  our  world 
needs  no  proof  from  us  in  this  place,  and  as  it  is  equally 


372  EULEs  OF  Christ's  fikal  judgment. 

palpable  that  an  awful  individuality  of  suffering  is  laid, 
or  may  be  laid  upon  us  in  this  life,  so  it  is  just  as  palpable 
the  same  thing  may  be  done  in  the  Day  of  Judgment. 
The  scrutiny  of  that  day  must  be  concerning  individuals, 
not  as  classes,  races,  or  societies,  but  into  their  several 
individualities,  and  into  the  thoughts,  words  and  deeds  of 
each  one,  as  if  he  were  the  only  subject  and  stood  alone 
before  the  Judgment- seat.  It  cannot  be  otherwise.  For  as 
our  sins  are  our  own  acts,  so  every  soul  must  then 
answer  for  himself  to  his  own  master,  and  bear  his  own 
burden,  and  bear  it  as  if  he  were  absolutely  alone.  And 
yet  every  ungodly  man,  while  he  will  be  condemned  by 
his  own  conscience,  will  also  be  condemned  by  all  other 
sinners.  And  every  secret  sin  will  then  be  exposed,  and 
all  the  ramifications  of  evil-doing  will  come  home  to  rest 
on  the  head  and  the  heart  whence  they  proceeded. 

Now  the  books  are  open  spread  ; 
Now  the  writing  must  be  read, 
Which  condemns  the  quick  and  dead ; 
Now,  before  the  Judge  severe, 
Hidden  things  must  all  appear ; 
Naught  can  pass  unpunished  here."* 

Nor  will  there  be  any  mistakes  committed  on  this  day. 
The  judgment  will  be  according  to  the  deeds  done  in  the 
body,  and  what  these  deeds  are  the  books  then  opened 
will  show,  so  clearly  that  there  will  be  no  denial  or  error. 
'No  miscalling  of  names,  no  perjury,  nor  false  testi- 
mony ;  but  every  case  will  be  determined  according  to 
the  books,  according  to  the  deeds  done  in  the  body,  and 
each  one's  case  separate  and  distinct  from  all  others, 
whether  the  things  done  be  good  or  bad. 


*  Missal  Dies  irfe  dies  ilia 


THE   EOCK   OF   AGES.  37 S 

By  way  of  reflections,  I  offer — 

I.  This  thought :  The  field  of  Jcnowledge  is  indeed 
wide.  The  number  of  things  desirable  to  be  known  may 
be  very  great,  but  our  happiness  may  be  eternally 
secured  if  only  a  few  things  were  drawn  down  from  our 
heads  into  our  hearts.  How  much  would  our  lives  be 
altered,  if  we  did  really  and  truly  believe  in  the  great 
and  last  Judgment  of  which  we  have  been  speaking  ! 
Then  how  gladly  would  we  hearken  to  the  Gospel's  joyful 
tidings,  offering  us  pardon  !  How  much  more  seriously 
would  our  thoughts  be  directed  to  those  things  that 
concern  the  world  to  come  !  And  if  we  thus  lived 
under  a  solemn  and  ever  present  sense  of  infinite  realities, 
then  we  should  feel  much  less  the  sorrows  of  this  life, 
and  the  noise  and  vanities  of  this  world  would  pass  as  if 
we  heard  them  not.  What  is  all  this  world  in  view  of 
the  Judgment-seat !  Is  it  not  altogether  unworthy  of 
beings  as  intelligent  as  we  are  to  allow  the  speck  of  time 
to  eclipse  eternity — to  allow  the  strife  and  toil,  passion 
and  pleasure  of  this  short  life  to  shut  out  from  our  view 
the  awful  future  ?  Should  we  not  strive  to  live  as  in  the 
light  of  the  Judgment-seat  of  God,  and  always  in  full 
view  of  the  Cross  of  his  Son  ? 

"  Rock  of  ages,  cleft  for  me, 
Let  me  hide  myself  in  thee  : 
Let  the  water  and  the  blood, 
From  thy  wounded  side  which  flowed, 
Be  of  sin  the  double  cure ; 
Cleanse  me  from  its  guilt  and  power. 

"  While  I  draw  this  fleeting  breath, 
When  my  heart-strings  break  in  death, 
When  I  soar  to  worlds  unknown, 
See  thee  on  thy  judgment-throne. 
Rock  of  ages,  cleft  for  me. 
Let  me  hide  myself  in  thee." 


B74  RULES  OF  Christ's  final  judginient. 

But  I  must  guard  you  against  the  presumption  that 
any  mere  degree  of  awakened  attention  to  the  salvation 
of  your  soul  in  view  of  these  awful  scenes  will  secure 
your  safety.  Deep  and  powerful  convictions  do  not 
always  result  in  true  conversion.  There  is  a  kind  of 
repentance  which  is  not  unto  life,  but  unto  death.  Such 
was  the  repentance  of  Judas  when  he  came  and  threw 
down  the  thirtj^  pieces  of  silver,  saying,  I  have  betrayed 
innocent  blood,  and  then  went  and  hanged  himself,  and 
went  to  his  own  place.  You  read  also  of  one  who  trem- 
bled as  Faul  reasoned  before  him  of  righteousness, 
temperance,  and  a  judgment  to  come,  but  was  not  con- 
verted. Felix  cried.  When  I  have  a  more  convenient 
season,  I  will  send  for  thee.  But  there  is  not  the  slightest 
evidence  that  he  ever  thought  the  convenient  time  had 
come.  He  had  ample  opportunity  to  see  the  Apostle,  and 
to  have  learned  more  about  the  way  to  prepare  to  meet 
the  judgment  to  come,  if  he  had  desired  to  do  so.  But 
he  did  not  avail  himself  of  these  opportuities.  He  escaped 
from  the  importunity  of  his  conscience  at  the  time,  on  the 
plea  of  a  more  convenient  season,  which  he  never  found. 
But,  dear  hearer,  what  more  convenient  time  can  you  ever 
have  than  the  present?  To-morrow  may  not  be  yours. 
This  very  night  your  soul  may  be  required  of  you.  And 
if  to-morrow  does  not  come  to  you,  the  awful  day  of 
judgment  will  surely  come.  If  the  more  convenient 
season  for  you  to  come  to  Christ  does  not  come,  still  it  is 
absolutely  certain  you  must  appear  before  his  Judgment- 
seat.  And  if  the  Apostle  contemplates  the  day  of  the 
appearing  of  the  Lord  Jesus  in  His  Kingdom  as  the  day 
of  his  coronation,  when  he  shall  receive  his  crown  of 
righteousness,  and  so  also  all  who  love  his  appearing, 
then  how  awful  will  be  the  doom  of  all  hypocrites  and 
unbelievers !  If  the  righteous  scarcely  be  saved,  what 
shall  be  the  end  of  the  ungodly  and  of  all  who  disobey 


THERE   MUST   BE   A   JUDGMEISTT   DAY.  375 

the  Gospel  ?    He  that  helieveth  and  is  baptized  shall 
he  saved :  He  that  helieveth  not  shall  he  damned, 

II.  The  consummation  of  all  things  belonging  to  our 
dynasty,  in  the  way  that  we  understand  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, is  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  hest  views  of  the 
heathen^  and  is  supported  by  reason,  common  sense,  and 
tradition.  It  is  in  harmony  essentially  with  Rabbinical 
and  Hindoo  philosophy,  as  well  as  with  the  teaching  of 
Greek  and  Roman  poets  and  moralists.  According  to  the 
Hindoos,  the  Supreme  Deity  is  the  Supreme  Pontiff  and 
Judge  of  the  universe.  All  law,  all  intelligence,  all  sys- 
tems are  from  Him  and  accountable  to  Him.  Even  the 
Brahmin  is  an  emanation  from  Him,  bringing  to  the  earth 
the  attributes  he  possessed  in  heaven.  [KTow  all  such 
ideas  imply  a  final  judgment,  when  the  conflict  between 
good  and  evil  must  be  decided.  Is  it  not  reasonable  to 
suppose  there  is  a  just  end  appointed  for  this  contest? 
For  without  this  eternal  judgment,  how  will  the  Justice 
of  God  ever  be  made  manifest  ?  If  men' s  lots  are  now 
diverse,  is  that  difference  always  according  to  right  ?  Is 
there  no  injustice  in  the  disproportions  of  this  world? 
Is  not  Divine  Providence  a  golden  chain  that  hangs 
between  heaven  and  earth,  of  which  we  see  at  best  only 
a  few  links,  while  all  the  rest  are  either  so  far  above, 
towards  the  end  that  is  attached  to  the  Eternal  Throne, 
that  even  our  faith  cannot  see  them,  or  they  are  so  deep 
in  the  mysteries  of  Providence  that  we  cannot  fathom 
them  :  and  in  the  mean  time,  is  it  not  a  precious  discipline 
to  wait  in  hope  for  the  clearing  up  of  all  in  the  Great 
Day  ?  Is  there  not  a  God  who  is  all- wise,  almighty,  and 
just  ?  Does  not  evil  now  reign  ?  If  not  triumphant  over 
good,  still  certainly  it  has  a  vast  empire.  Are  there  not 
evil  spirits,  angels  who  have  fallen  from  their  allegiance  in 
heaven,  and  some  who  have  kept  their  places  of  duty  and 


376  EULES  OF  Christ's  rmAL  judgment. 

glory  ?  Is  there  to  be  no  final  settlement  witli  the  wicked 
angels?  Did  not  God  make  man  holy,  and  then,  after  he 
sinned  and  fell,  did  He  not  show  him  mercy,  and  does  He 
not  now  offer  to  restore  our  race  to  Paradise  again  ?  But 
all  do  not  accept  this  ofier.  Many  live  in  total  ignorance 
or  wicked  contempt  of  it.  Must  there  not  be  a  day  for 
showing  the  harmony  of  all  God' s  ways — a  day  for  doing 
justice  to  the  pure  and  holy  angels  and  other  virtuous 
beings  in  the  universe,  as  well  as  for  avenging  his  saints  ? 

III.  The  Day  of  Judgment  is  a  clear  demonstration 
of  the  Supreme  Divinity  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
Nothing  less  than  the  sum  of  all  the  Godhead  could  be 
equal  to  the  functions  of  the  Judgment-seat.  Not  only 
will  the  duties  of  that  awful  day  require  that  all  authority 
and  power  in  heaven  and  earth  should  be  in  his  hands, 
but  that  He  should  also  have  omniscience  to  search  the 
heart  and  try  the  reins  of  all  intelligent  beings.  And  as 
Christ  in  his  own  person  executes  his  office  as  Judge 
of  the  quick  and  the  dead,  He  will  show  more  of  the 
splendor  and  majesty  of  God  than  had  ever  before  been 
manifested  to  created  beings.  The  Judge  of  quick  and 
dead  is  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  ordained  as  Media- 
tor, Saviour,  Advocate,  King,  Lord,  and  Christ.  Thus  the 
Apostle  declares  that  God  hath  given  assurance  of  the 
judgment  of  the  world  in  righteousness  by  Christ,  in 
this,  that  He  hath  raised  him  from  the  dead,  and  ordained 
him  to  that  work,  and  appointed  a  day  for  it.  As  Christ 
has  redeemed  his  people,  they  meet  Him  on  the  judgment 
throne  as  a  friend.  But  his  enemies,  who  would  not  that 
He  should  reign  over  them  :  how  will  they  stand  before 
Him,  and  answer  for  rejecting  His  offers  of  pardon  ?  Then 
will  they  be  speechless  and  without  excuse.  The  mercies 
of  God  and  the  very  blood  of  the  Cross  will  be  awful 
witnesses  against  them. 


SAD^T   AND    SmNER   BEFORE   GOD.  377 

ly.  SucTi  a  day  must  he  tJioicgJit  of  icitJi  very  different 
views  and  feelings  hy  different  Icinds  of  people.  The 
vast  assembly  at  the  Judgment  will  be  divided  into  two 
great  classes,  the  righteous  and  the  wicked.  The  right- 
eous rise  to  the  resurrection  of  life,  and  the  wicked  to  the 
resurrection  of  shame  and  everlasting  contempt.  The 
righteous  will  then  lift  up  their  heads  with  joy.  Their 
sorrows  are  past.  Oppressed  innocence  is  now  redressed. 
The  Judge  on  the  Throne  is  their  friend.  His  words  are 
distinct  and  authoritative.  Come,  ye  blessed  of  my 
Father,  inherit  the  kingdom  prepared  for  you  from  the 
foundation  of  the  world.  Enter  now  into  the  joy  of  your 
Lord.  Here  on  earth.  He  said,  Come,  take  up  your  Cross ; 
deny  yourselves  ;  follow  me.  But  now  the  work  is  done, 
the  race  is  run,  ''the  gate  is  past  and  heaven  is  won." 
And  so,  on  the  other  hand,  how  awful  the  condition  of 
those  who  are  then  numbered  with  his  enemies  !  Every 
mouth  will  be  stopped,  and  all  will  be  guilty  before  God. 
And  the  Judge  will  say.  Bring  hither  these  mine  enemies, 
WHO  WOULD  NOT  that  I  should  reign  over  them,  and  slay 
them  before  me.  Cast  them  into  utter  darkness,  where 
there  shall  be  weeping  and  wailing  and  gnashing  of  teeth. 
I  called  them  to  come.  I  besought  them  to  repent  and 
forsake  their  evil  ways.  They  were  warned  that  sin 
would  bring  them  to  this  awful  end  ;  but  they  would  not 
hearken.     Now  they  must  reap  as  they  have  sown. 

Y.  Since,  then,  there  is  a  day  fixed  for  the  judgment 
of  all  men  by  the  Lord  Jesus,  let  the  wicked  and  the  pro- 
fane know  that  Divine  vengeance,  though  it  is  slow,  does 
not  sleep.  The  record  of  every  human  being  is  now 
making  up  for  this  awful  day.  And  though  we  know  not 
the  time,  we  know  it  will  surely  come.  And  whether 
that  day  be  far  remote  or  near  at  hand,  the  day  of  death 
cannot  be  very  far  from  every  one  of  us,  and  after  death 


378  EULES  OF  Christ's  final  judgmeot:. 

we  can  make  no  more  preparation  for  the  Judgment-seat. 
As  we  die,  so  we  appear  for  judgment.  Nor  is  there  any 
possible  escape.  No  place  in  which  to  hide.  All  nations, 
small  and  great,  and  of  all  generations  are  there.  The 
sinner  hidden  in  the  centre  of  the  material  universe,  even 
if  it  were  piled  in  ruins  upon  him,  could  not  escape. 
The  piercing  eye  and  Almighty  hand  would  drag  him 
forth  to  the  Judgment  Throne. 

yi.  And  the  certainty  of  a  judgment  to  come  should 
make  us  more  in  earnest  for  the  salvation  of  our  fellow- 
men.  Can  it  be  that  there  is  an  endless  eternity  just 
before  us  ?  Is  there  an  endless  heaven  for  the  pious  and 
an  eternal  hell  for  the  ungodly  ?  How  then  can  we  rest, 
or  allow  ourselves  to  live'  so  sluggish,  so  engrossed  with 
the  things  of  this  life  1  Seeing  that  such  awful  things  are 
before  us,  part  and  parcel  of  which  we  must  ourselves 
soon  be,  what  manner  of  persons  ought  we  to  be  in  all 
holy  conversation  and  godliness,  looking  for  and  hasten- 
ing unto  the  coming  of  the  day  of  God  ! 

yil.  The  contemplation  of  the  judgment  to  come 
should  make  us  more  patient  in  suffering,  more  content 
to  endure  the  trials  of  this  life,  and  teach  us  to  think  less 
of  the  honors  and  show  and  riches  and  glory  of  this 
world.  What  will  all  these  things  be  in  that  eventful 
day !  How  then  will  the  unjust,  the  slanderer,  the 
drunkard,  the  whoremonger,  the  liar,  the  murderer,  the 
profane  and  the  contemner  of  God,  the  despiser  of  the 
Gospel  of  Christ  appear  before  God  !  In  that  splendid 
and  awful  assembly  their  laughter  will  be  turned  into 
mourning,  and  their  joy  into  lamentation.  But  it  will  be 
all  in  vain  for  them  to  cry  for  the  rocks  and  the  moun- 
tains to  fall  on  them  and  hide  them  from  the  face  of  the 
Throne  of  God  and  of  the  Lamb. 


SAD    CHAI^GES    AT   THE   JUDGMENT.  379 

There  is,  then,  no  need  Of  arguments  to  prove  that  it  is 
wisdom  to  prepare  for  the  judgment.  We  know  we  are 
sinners.  We  cannot  escape  death  and  the  Judgment. 
As  sinners  out  of  Christ  we  cannot  abide  the  day  of  the 
revelation  of  the  righteous  judgment  of  Almighty  God. 
Then  surely  we  should  now  acquaint  ourselves  with  Him, 
and  be  at  peace. 

VIII.  Will  there  not,  then,  be  many  awful  changes  in 
human  conditions — many  awful  disappointments  at  the 
Judgment- seat  of  Christ?  We  cannot  judge  of  men's 
condition  after  death  from  their  condition  here.  The 
parable  of  Lazarus  and  the  rich  man  is  a  picture  of  most 
striking  contrasts.  Every  thing  was  reversed.  Here 
Lazarus  had  his  evil  things :  there  he  was  comforted. 
Here  the  rich  man  had  his  good  things :  there  he  was 
tormented.  We  cannot,  then,  always  judge  of  a  man's 
tru-e  character  from  his  present  circumstances.  A  man's 
true  character  is  what  he  really  is  in  the  sight  of  God. 
It  is  the  way  of  his  life  and  of  his  heart  towards  his 
Maker  and  towards  his  fellow-men.  This  is  not  fully 
known  to  any  but  the  All-seeing  Eye.  But  a  man's 
circumstances,  his  status  and  condition  in  this  world,  are 
affected  by  the  dispensations  of  Divine  Providence  to- 
wards him  in  things  material,  or  of  the  earth,  earthy. 
And  hence  worldly  prosperity  is  not  always  a  sure 
indication  that  we  are  in  a  state  of  grace,  nor  is  worldly 
adversity  a  proof  that  God  does  not  love  us.  On  the  con- 
trary, adversity  is  more  friendly  to  a  heavenly  disposition 
and  the  laying  up  of  treasures  in  the  skies  than  pros- 
perity. It  is  believed  that  worldly  prosperity  destroys 
more  happiness,  and  ruins  more  immortal  souls,  than 
adversity.  Chastisements  are  evidences  of  our  Divine 
sonship.  Whom  the  Lord  loveth  He  chasteneth.  The 
branches  of  the  true  vine  are  pruned  that  they  may  bring 


380  EULES  OF  Christ's  final  judgmeitt. 

forth  more  fruit.  Alas !  that  many  who  are  first  will  then 
be  last — first  in  promise  and  expectation,  in  gifts  and 
opportunities — shall  then  he  found  rejected,  reprobate, 
lost !  To  what  a  height  of  glory  will  the  meek  then  be 
raised  up,  and  to  what  a  depth  of  woe  will  many  of  those 
who  have  been  so  prosperous  in  this  world  be  then  con- 
signed !  And,  ah !  if  such  disappointments  as  these  were 
all.  But  to  think  of  the  divisions  that  will  take  place  in 
that  day  between  Pastors  ahd  their  flocks,  Sabbath-school 
teachers  and  their  pupils,  parents  and  their  children. 
Ah  !  there  will  be  mourning  in  the  judgment,  when  the 
wicked  go  away  into  everlasting  punishment. 

Will  not  the  young  think  on  these  things  ?  Will  not  the 
impenitent  consider  ?  How  can  any  of  you  abide  in  this 
awful  day  !  The  year  is  drawing  towards  its  close.  You 
have  been  often,  very  often  invited  to  come  to  Christ  and 
live.  And  some  of  you,  I  see  from  the  almond  blossoms  on 
your  heads,  are  already  far  advanced  in  the  way  to  the 
house  appointed  for  all  living.  Are  you  ripening  for 
heaven,  or  are  you  far  down  in  the  broad  and  crooked 
way,  which  leads  to  destruction  ?  Do  you  not  know  that 
it  is  appointed  unto  you  once  to  die  and  after  death  the 
judgment?  How  do  you  expect  to  feel  and  conduct 
yourself  amid  the  astonishing  scenes  just  referred  to? 
When  you  die,  you  expect  to  be  buried.  You,  do  not 
believe  your  soul  will  be  in  your  coffin.  Where  will  it 
be  ?  Will  not  your  body  rise  from  that  grave  ?  Will 
you  not,  with  these  very  ears  of  yours,  hear  the  arch- 
angel' s  trumpet  much  more  distinctly  and  effectively  than 
you  hear  my  voice?  And  will  not  your  eyes  see  the 
Judge  and  the  great  white  Throne,  and  the  gathering 
millions  of  millions,  and  the  books  opened  ?  And  then 
what  sentence  will  you  hear  ?  And  what  will  become  of 
you  then  ?    Which  way  will  you  go  from  the  Judgment  ? 


THE  PALACE  IK  THE  SKIES.  381 

Will  you  ascend  with  the  glorious  Redeemer  to  reign 
with  him,  or  be  sent  down  with  evil  angels  and  ungodly 
men  to  perdition?  And  do  these  things  make  any 
impression  on  you  ?  Does  your  heart  tremble  ?  Then 
to-day  seize  the  offer  of  me*rcy.  Cry  unto  God  for  pardon. 
Accept  the  Gospel's  gracious  offer.  Now  Jesus  says, 
Him  that  cometh  unto  me  I  will  in  nowise  cast  out. 


"  Then  grant  us,  Saviour,  so  to  pass  our  time  trembling  here, 
That  when  upon  the  clouds  of  heaven  Thy  glory  shall  appear 
Uplifting  high  our  joyful  heads,  in  triumph  we  may  rise, 
A  nd  enter,  with  Thine  augel  train,  Thy  palace  in  the  skies." 


APPENDIX 


APPENDIX 


"  It  is  better  to  have  no  opinion  of  God  at  all  than  such  an  opinion  as  is 
unworthy  of  Him ;  for  the  one  is  unbelief,  the  other  is  contumely." — Lord 
Bacon, 

"  Surely  I  had  rather  a  groat  deal  men  should  say,  there  was  no  such  man  at 
all  as  Plutarch,  than  that  they  should  say,  there  was  one  Plutarch^  who  used  to 
eat  his  children  as  soon  as  they  were  born,  as  the  poets  say  of  Saturn." — Plutarch. 

It  is  obvious  that  many  points  may  be  in  the  mind  of  a  think- 
ing, reading,  studious,  earnest-hearted  pastor,  which  may  give 
shape  and  color  to  the  pictures  which  he  draws  for  his  hearers, 
that  it  is  not  expedient  to  give  in  detail  from  the  pulpit.  My 
object  in  this  Appendix  is  to  describe  briefly  the  field  of  thought 
and  critical  examination  passed  over  in  the  preceding  Discourses, 
as  seen  from  the  study.  It  seems  to  me  important  for  us  to  know 
something  of  the  views  entertained  concerning  Christ  in  the  ages 
immediately  following  that  of  the  Apostles,  and  to  have  in  view 
the  lights  under  which  the  great  Council  of  Nicaea  was  held,  in 
A.  D.  325  ;  and  to  examine  how  far  and  in  what  respects  the 
skeptical  theories  of  our  schools  of  modern  criticism  are  the  reflec- 
tion of  ancient  speculations.  By  taking  such  a  «urvey  of  the  field, 
it  will  be  seen  that,  after  all,  the  Apostles'  Creed  is  essentially  the 
true  voice  of  the  Church  of  God,  and  that  nothing  has  been 
brought  to  light,  either  by  unbelieving  science  or  disbelieving 
criticism,  that  should  cause  us  to  discard  even  the  articulated 
utterances  of  our  faith  as  to  its  fundamental  doctrines.  I  propose 
in  this  Appendix ; — 

I.  A  few  remarks  on  the  vital  importance  of  the  question  that 
occupies  so  large  a  part  of  our  modern  philosophical  and  critical 
literature. 

25 


386  APPENDIX. 

II.  A  brief  review  of  some  of  the  opinions  advanced  concern- 
ing Christ,  from  the  days  of  the  Apostles  to  the  Council  of  Nicsea 
which  are  alluded  to,  denied,  and  confuted  in  the  Apostles'  Creed. 

III.  The  Aspect  of  Modern  Thought  concerning  Christ,  with 
special  reference  to  the  theories  of  Strauss,  Tiibingen,  and  Renan. 

And,  Finally,  a  few  words  to  theological  students  and  young 
ministers  of  the  Gospel. 

I.   The  paramount  importance  of  the  question  now  at  issue. 

It  is  seen  from  the  sayings  of  Lord  Bacon  and  Plutarch,  quoted 
above,  that  it  has  been  long  and  learnedly  debated  by  great  men, 
whether  Atheism  or  Superstition  was  the  greatest  evil  to  man- 
kind. Formerly,  it  was  held  by  many  that  even  Atheism  was  not 
worse  than  gross  and  unworthy  conceptions  of  God ;  but  now  it 
is  generally  believed  that  any  kind  of  religion  is  better  than  none 
at  all.  It  is,  however,  very  far  from  the  truth,  that  all  religions 
are  equally  good,  or  that  one  kind  of  religion  is  for  one  country 
and  one  people,  and  another  for  another  people.  This  is  old 
heathenism.  It  is  the  doctrine  of  local  national  deities  and  patron 
saints.  It  is  then  of  great  im])ortance  to  have  clear  and  correct 
views  of  God  and  of  His  character  and  Government.  For  as  the 
stream  cannot  rise  higher  than  the  fountain,  and  as  the  effect  is  of 
the  same  character  as  its  cause ;  so  the  sum  of  perfection  pro- 
posed as  attainable  by  any  religion,  is  to  become  like  the  object 
of  worship.  There  are  many  ways  in  which  this  point  might  be 
historically  illustrated.  It  will  suffice,  however,  for  our  present 
purpose,  to  remark : — 

That  our  apprehension  of  what  God  is,  and  our  belief  concern- 
ing His  works  and  ways,  have  a  very  important  bearing  upon  our 
mental  and  moral  character,  and  consequently  have  an  essential 
influence  upon  our  happiness,  here  and  hereafter.  Three  facts 
from  the  experience  and  history  of  mankind  may  be  referred  to  in 
proof  of  this  position.  First.  Our  race  has  and  does,  and,  we  may 
add,  ever  will,  worship  something.  Secondly.  Men  become  like  the 
objects  which  they  worship  as  gods.  Thirdly.  Man  has  no  means 
within  himself,  or  within  the  reach  of  his  own  inherent  power  and 
wisdom,  by  which  to  extricate  himself  from  the  evil  into  which  he 
is  introduced  when  he  makes  his  entrance  into  this  world.  And 
hence  we  may  add,  fourthly^  our  race  needs  Divine  help.     And 


APPENDIX.  387 

this  Divine  interposition  is  the  Gospel.  Our  holy  religion  is  from 
heaven.  It  is  of  God,  and  is  made  known  to  us  by  Revelation. 
It  is  the  religion  of  the  Eterxal  Word.  I  stop  not  here  to 
inquire  into  the  historic  proofs,  that  man  is  so  constituted  that  he 
does  and  will  worship  something.  Nor  is  it  necessary  here  to 
inquire  what  that  something  is,  nor  whether  it  is  a  good  desired  or 
an  evil  feared.  Nor  is  it  to  our  purpose  to  ask  how  our  race 
comes  to  possess  such  a  constitution.  It  is  quite  enough  that  the 
fact  lies  over  the  whole  territory  of  human  existence  and  migra- 
tion. Whether  man's  moral  and  religious  constitution  is  born 
with  him,  or  is  deduced  from  reason  or  tradition,  or  is  implanted 
Viy  culture,  or  is  the  residt  of  all  such  agencies,  it  is  not  material 
to  our  argument.  All  we  now  insist  upon  is,  that  man  is  such  a 
religious  heing^  that  he  has^  and  does^  and  ever  will  acknoicledge 
and  worship  something  as  God.  This  is  characteristic  of  all  the 
tribes  of  our  race.  It  is  a  religious  capacity,  a  moral  sense,  a  con- 
science, an  apprehension  of  God  and  a  hereafter,  rather  than  any 
superiority  of  physical  structure  or  quantity  of  brain  that  dis- 
tinguishes human  beings  from  lower  animals.  The  cases  reported 
by  some  travellers,  of  tribes  that  have  no  religious  belief  at  all, 
are  not  sufficient  to  disprove  the  correctness  of  this  position.  A 
more  thorough  acquaintance  with  them  has  thus  far  shown  that 
such  reports  were  erroneous.  If  any  such  example  is  really  found, 
it  will  be  an  exception,  and  if  the  whole  history  of  the  case  were 
known,  doubtless  it  could  be  satisfixctorily  explained.  Among  all 
tiibes  and  nations,  and  through  all  ages,  there  has  been  found 
some  idea  of  accountability,  of  a  future  state,  of  a  Supreme  Being, 
a  God.  Wherever  our  race  is  found,  we  are  found  worshipping 
something  believed  to  possess  attributes  of  possible  good  or  evil 
to  us.  Even  if  human  belief  in  God  is  implanted  in  the  soul,  and 
is  therefore  a  native  feeling,  as  we  believe,  it  may  be  subject  to 
growth  and  decay,  as  any  other  power  of  the  soul,  from  neglect  or 
the  influence  of  education.  Such  a  belief  is  potentially  inherent  in 
the  mind,  and  is  seldom,  if  ever,  so  extinguished,  that  it  may  not, 
in  favoring  circumstances,  again  revive  and  exert  itself  against 
every  attempt  made  to  root  it  out.  The  feebleness  of  the  religious 
sentiment  in  some  races,  as  is  alleged  of  certain  African  tribes  by 
recent  travellers,*  and  of  the  savages  of  this  continent  and  of  the 

*  Seo  Baker's  "  Albert  Nyanza  and  Sources  of  the  Nile;"  and  Reade's  "Savage 
Africa,''  pasaim. 


388  APPENDIX. 

Chinese,  only  proves  that  the  religious  feeling,  like  the  moral  feel- 
inf>"s,  a  sense  of  truth  and  justice,  is  susceptible  of  decay.  It  is 
admitted  that  the  conscience  may  be  corrupted,  but  this  abuse  of 
the  conscience  does  not  prove  that  there  is  no  native  and  universal 
principle  of  rectitude.  We  may  admit  it,  therefore,  as  a  fact,  that 
all  men  do  not  seem  to  have  equal  religious  susceptibilities,  or  to 
be  equally  demonstrative  in  their  feelings  towards  their  Creator. 
But  this  does  not  prove  that  there  are  any  absolutely  without  a 
religious  capacity.  The  idea  of  a  God  is  an  original  faculty  of  the 
Boul,  and  hence  we  can  adopt  the  saying  of  Plutarch  ;  that  the  sum 
of  all  religion  is  to  he  like  the  God  we  iioorship.  It  cannot  be 
otherwise.  The  connection  here  is  that  of  cause  and  effect.  The 
character  of  the  object  worshipped  is  regarded  as  superior.  And 
w^e  naturally  desire  to  be  acceptable  to  the  Being  we  worship  as 
God — that  our  character  may  be  conformable  to  His.  This  is  the 
teaching  of  our  Lord  Himself  If  we  are  sincere  and  consistent, 
therefore,  in  our  religious  views,  we  will  strive  to  keep  the  com- 
mandments, and  acquire  the  attributes  which  are  according  to  the 
will  and  character  of  our  God.  Such  views  and  desires  will 
inevitably  produce  in  us  strong  aspirations  after  conformity  to  the 
moral  character  of  the  object  of  our  worship.  We  become  and 
are  what  we  supremely  admire  and  adore,  as  far  as  creatures  can 
become  like  their  Creator. 

All  human  history  is  in  evidence  on  this  point.  The  character 
of  every  nation  and  tribe  and  city  has  been  modified  by  its 
religion.  Grecian  cities  and  states,  and  the  heathen  generally, 
ancient  and  modern,  are  but  the  counterpart  of  their  gods.  There 
is  a  correspondence  of  resemblance  between  their  characters,  and 
their  opinions  about  the  attributes  and  precepts  of  their  gods. 
Pope  has  well  described  their  objects  of  worship :  "  Gods 
partial,  changeful,  passionate,  unjust,  whose  attributes  were  rage, 
revenge,  and  lust ;"  and  yet  these  were  precisely  the  gods  whose 
attributes  are  reflected  historically  in  their  own  characters. 
And  after  all  that  can  be  allow^ed  for  their  heathen  virtues,  of 
patriotism,  heroism,  and  devotion  to  poetry,  philosophy,  and  the 
fine  arts,  the  Greeks  and  Romans  exhibit  nationalities  marked 
with  the  traits  they  ascribed  to  their  gods.  And  if  it  were  pos- 
sible to  institute  such  a  comparison,  the  principle  here  piyjsented 
applies  in  our  day  with  more  emphasis  to  the  character  of  Christ 
than  it  ever  did  before.     It  is  only  through  Christ  we  can  ap- 


APPENDIX.  389 

proach  God,  and  be  reconciled  to  him.  It  is  only  in  Christ  God 
can  look  upon  us  with  delight.  And  it  is  only  as  we  have  the 
Spirit  of  Christ  dwelling  in  us  that  we  are  Christians.  And  we 
may  add,  as  we  regard  C^hrist  so  He  regards  us.  We  may  form 
some  idea,  then,  of  what  Christ  thinks  of  us  from  what  we  think 
of  Him. 

IT.  The  opinions  advanced  concerning  Christ  before  the 
Coxnxcil  of  Nicma^  which  are  denied  and  confuted  in  the 
Apostles'  Creed, 

The  propriety  of  the  condensed  notices  here  offered  arises  not 
only  from  the  vast  importance  of  having  correct  and  clear  views 
concerning  Christ,  but  also  because  it  is  hardly  to  be  supposed 
that  the  majority  of  our  Sabbath  congregations  or  of  general 
readers  are  familiar  with  the  literature  of  theological  dogmas,  or 
acquainted  with  the  names  and  details  of  Church  history.  It 
seems  necessary,  therefore,  here  to  help  our  readers  to  some 
acquaintance  with  a  few  of  the  most  famous  Judaizing  and  phi- 
losophizing teachers  whose  erroneous  opinions  and  conceits  are 
alluded  to  in  the  preceding  Discourses,  and  which  our  Creed  was 
intended  to  deny  and  refute  by  holding  forth  the  true  faith  of 
God's  people.  And  perhaps  it  will  save  us  from  some  confusion 
to  say  at  once  that  Cerinthians,  Ebionites,  Pocetae,  and  some 
other  less  known  sects  may  all  be  classed  under  the  general  name 
of  Gnostics.  By  this  we  do  not  mean  that  these  sects  were  per- 
fectly agreed.  This  was  not  the  fact.  Perhaps  their  only  unity 
was  in  not  believing  in  Jesus  Christ  as  He  is  set  forth  in  our 
received  Creed.  The  name  Gnostics  is  from  a  Greek  word  signi- 
fying knowledge. 

It  is  generally  believed  that  they  are  referred  to  in  1  Tim.  vi. 
20;  Col.  ii.  8,  and  1  John  ii.  18.  At  first  they  were  known  as 
philosophers,  or  simply  followers  of  Pythagoras  and  Plato,  but  in 
process  of  time  they  insisted  on  interpreting  the  Holy  Scriptures 
according  to  their  philosophy,  and  making  the  Scriptures  bend  to 
it.  Their  doctrine*:,  in  some  shape  or  other,  cover  a  wide  field, 
and  have  prevailed  more  or  less  among  the  educated  classes  of 
the  world  from  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era  to  this  day  ; 
but  the  main  point  in  the  line  of  this  volume  is,  that  they  agreed 
in  denying  the  Divinity  of  our  Lord,  his  equality  with  the  Father, 
and  for  the  most  part  denied  his  real  humanity  ahogether. 


390  APPENDIX. 

The  Docetm  also  have  their  name  from  a  Greek  word  signify- 
ing to  seem,  imagine^  and  thus  their  very  name  proclaims  their 
great  error.  They  held  that  Jesus  did  not  exist  in  reality  at  all, 
but  only  in  appearance,  just  as  the  angels  who  appeared  to 
Abraham  ;  and,  as  a  consequence,  they  denied  that  there  was  any 
reality  in  Christ's  death  and  resurrection,  and  of  course,  then, 
there  is  no  redemption  by  His  blood.  Some  of  the  Docetae  taught 
that  Jesus  had  a  real  angelic  substance  that  was  at  his  death 
resolved  again  into  ethereal  elements,  and  that  therefore  what  we 
call  his  ascension  into  heaven  was  simply  the  returning  of  the 
angelic  substance  that  constituted  the  man  Jesus  into  \\\q  pleroma 
of  the  universe.  The  rise  and  history  of  the  Ebionites  and  their 
influence  on  Christianity  are  points  of  extended  and  most  critical 
inquiry  in  our  day.  Professor  Fisher*  declares  "  the  Ebionites 
were  degenerate  Hebrew  Christians.'"'  Ebrardf  thinks  they  were 
''Judaizing  Unitarian  Christians  of  the  humanitarian  type." 
They  said.  Jesus  was  the  Messiah,  and  was  only  a  man,  and  that 
his  great  mission  was  to  give  a  new  enforcement  to  the  Mosaic 
law.  They  were  divided  into  several  sects.  Bauer  of  Tiibingen 
has  written  much  and  learnedly  about  the  Ebionites,  but  is  not 
to  be  relied  on  for  orthodox  views.  The  Ebionites  and  Cerin- 
thians  belong  to  about  the  same  period  of  history,  that  is,  some 
part  of  the  second  century.  Some  of  our  learned  men  say  they 
were  the  ancient  Essenes.  This  is  doubtful.  They  held  views 
widely  differing  among  themselves  on  many  points,  but  were 
essentially  Gnostics  both  in  philosophy  and  religion,  and  agreed 
in  denying  our  Lord's  proper  Divinity.  Irenaeus  positively 
declares  that  St.  John  wrote  his  Gospel  expressly  to  confute  the 
errors  of  these  Gnostic  sects,  especially  of  Cerinthus.  Michfelis, 
Waterland,  and  many  other  first-class  authors  entertain  this 
opinion  very  decidedly.  Cerinthus^  it  seems,  admitted  that  Jesus 
had  a  real  human  body,  but  that  he  was  born  after  the  ordinary 
way,  and  was  therefore  nothing  but  a  man,  the  son  of  Joseph 
and  Mary ;  and  that  he  became  Christ  at  his  baptism,  when  an 
ceon  descended  upon  him.  This  geon,  he  said,  was  the  first  of  the 
seven  great  aeons,  but  a  creature.     Christ  never  was,  therefore, 


♦  Fisher's  Supernatural  Origin  of  Christianity,  p.  320. 
f  Ebrard's  Gospel  History,  p.  522. 


APPEjlTDIX.  391 

in  any  true  sense,  properly  God.  It  is  believed  that  Cerinthus 
was  the  first  person  who  taught  an  earthly  millennium,  promising 
a  Mohammedan  paradise  to  his  followers  during  that  period. 
Who  can  tell  how  much  Mohammed  borrowed  from  Cerinthus  ? 

J3  a  silkies  was  a  Gnostic  belonging  to  the  second  century, 
and  thought  to  have  been,  as  intimated  in  the  foregoing  pnges, 
a  dinciple  of  Simon  Magus.  It  is  believed  he  studied  at  Alexnn- 
dria,  but  spent  his  life  chiefly  in  Persia.  Like  Cerinthus,  he  held 
that  Jesus  was  a  creature,  the  eldest  of  the  aBons,  or  the  first  of 
the  seven  aeons  of  God,  who  took  on  himself  the  form  or 
semblance  of  a  man,  but  did  not  become  a  man.  He  admitted 
the  crucifixion  as  a  reality,  but  said  that  the  person  who  was 
crucified  was  not  Jesus,  but  Simon  the  Cyrenian.  This  viev>^  was 
adopted  by  Mohammed.  Basilides  of  course,  therefore,  rejected 
the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  of  the  Atonement,  and  of  our  Lord's 
resurrection. 

Sabellius  was  a  Greek  philosopher  of  Egypt  of  the  third 
century.  He  taught  that  Jesus  and  the  Holy  Spirit  were  but 
emanations  or  functions  of  God — that  it  was  God  who  was  born 
of  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  that,  having  accomplished  the  mystery 
of  salvation  in  the  form  and  work  which  we  ascribe  to  Jesus,  he 
difi'used  himself  on  the  Apostles  as  in  the  fiery  tongues  of  Pente- 
cost, and  was  then  called  the  Holy  Spirit.  According  to  Sabel- 
lius there  is  but  one  person  in  the  Godiiead,  and  the  term  Father, 
Son,  and  Holy  Spirit  signify  not  persons,  but  merely  oflSces.  One 
of  the  favorite  illustrations  of  the  Trinity  among  his  followers 
was  the  sun  representing  God  as  the  Father,  while  the  illumi- 
nating properties  of  tiie  sun  are  the  Word,  or  God  the  Son,  and 
the  warming,  creating  power  of  the  sun  represents  the  Holy 
Spirit.  Those  who  do  not  admit  any  distinction  of  persons  in  the 
Godhead,  and  yet  believe  in  the  reality  of  the  Incarnation  and 
sufferings  of  Christ,  are  known  in  the  history  of  the  Church  as 
JPatripassicuis^  because  they  say  it  was  God  the  Father  who 
sufiered  as  Christ.  It  is  alleged  that  their  founder  was  a  Phrygian 
philosopher  by  the  name  of  Praxeas.  If  he  lived,  as  it  is  said, 
in  the  secimd  century,  then  Sabellius  probably  adopted  his 
opinions  from  him. 

It  is  believed  that  the  real  father  of  Socinians  lived  about  this 
time,  namely,  Paul  of  Samosata,  who  was  Bishop  of  Antioch,  in 


392  APPENDIX. 

Syria,  A.  D.  262,  whose  followers  are  the  Paulianists  of  history. 
They  were  strongly  condemned  by  the  Council  of  Nicsea.  The 
distinguishing  article  of  their  faith,  at  least  as  far  as  our  subject 
leads  us  to  speak  of,  seems  to  have  been  this :  the  Son  of  God 
and  the  Holy  Spirit  exist  in  God  the  Father,  just  as  the  faculties 
of  reason  and  activity  do  in  man.  Consequently  they  held  that 
Christ  was  born  a  mere  man,  having  been  begotten  as  any  other 
man,  and  that  then  the  wisdom  of  the  Father  descended  into 
Him,  and  by  it  He  wrought  miracles ;  and  that  it  was  only  to 
express  this  union  of  the  Divine  reason  or  wisdom  of  the  man 
Jesus  that  he  was  allowed  to  be  called  God. 

Of  the  Nestorians  and  Eutychians,  as  they  come  after  the 
Council  of  Nicasa,  I  need  not  speak.  But  our  line  of  investigation 
requires  at  this  point  some  notice  of  Arius  and  the  Council  of  Nicsea. 

The  Council  of  Nic^a  was  held  in  the  city  of  Nica^a,  in  Asia 
Minor,  by  command  of  Constantine  the  Great,  then  emperor  of 
the  world,  in  a.d.  325.  Its  title  is  the  *'  Great  and  Holy  Synod." 
It  is  claimed,  and  not  without  just  grounds,  that  this  synod  repre- 
sented the  voice,  and  the  conscience,  and  the  learning  and  piety 
of  the  whole  Christian  world.  It  Avas  indeed  a  very  august  body, 
composed  of  the  very  choicest  ministers  of  God,  from  many  and 
distant  parts  of  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa — men  who  were  ear- 
nestly engaged  in  preaching  the  Gospel  to  the  heathen,  and  in 
strengthening  and  comforting  the  scattered  flocks  of  believers. 
Most  of  them  had  endured  great  hardships  in  the  service  of  Christ. 
They  professed  in  the  decrees  of  the  Council  the  faith  they  had 
suifered  for,  and  had  themselves  received  at  their  baptism  into 
Christ ;  and  as  they  believed  this  faith  came  to  them  on  the 
authority  of  the  Church,  and  was  according  to  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
tures, so  they  believed  they  were  setting  forth  and  defending  the 
true  faith  of  the  Holy  Apostles  themselves. 

The  occasion  of  the  Nicene  Council  was  the  Arian  controversy, 
but  the  influence  of  that  sect  was  not  wholly  arrested  by  the 
Council.  For  at  least  three  hundred  years  it  had  great  influence 
in  Christendom,  and  succeeded  in  having  power  enough  to  per- 
secute and  exile  some  of  the  leading  members  of  the  Council  of 
Nicaea,  that  had  condemned  Arius  and  his  followers.  And, 
although  the  name  Arianism  has  sometimes  been  laid  to  rest,  the 
views  it  symbolizes  still  live.    The  Arianism  of  the  seventh  century 


APPENDIX.  893 

differs  from  that  of  the  fourth,  while  that  of  our  day  differs  from 
that  of  all  preceding  ages.  The  influence  of  Arius  penetrates  and 
pervades  the  enclosures  guarded  by  all  the  three  great  and  ancient 
creeds  much  more  than  is  perhaps  generally  admitted.  We  have 
the  authority  of  the  Christian  Examiner  for  saying  that  Dr.  Bel- 
lows, in  unfolding  the  Unitarian  idea  of  Jesus  Christ,  admits  that 
"There  are  within  the  Unitarian  ranks  all  shades  of  opinion 
about  Jesus  Christ,  from  a  Modal  or  Sabellian  Semi-Trinitarian- 
ism,  through  high  and  low  Arianism,  Socinianism,  Priest  ley  ism, 
down  to  pure  Human itarianism  and  Naturalism.  But  all  these 
diverse  parties  do  agree  in  one  thing,  and  that  is,  in  '  denying 

THE  PROPER  DEITY  OF  JeSUS  ChRIST.'  " 

Tt  cannot  then  be  considered  unfair  to  say  that  the  followers 
of  Arius  have  "  a  coat  of  many  colors,"  that  fits  easily  all  sizes. 
For  however  much  the  leading  minds  among  them  may  differ, 
they  all  tend  in  the  same  direction.  The  shades  of  difference,  and 
the  modifications  of  views  concerning  Christ,  from  Cerinthus  to 
Arius,  and  from  Arius  to  Socinus,  and  from  his  day  to  this,  do 
not  essentially  change  the  main  points.  They  all  say  Christ  is  not 
equal  with  the  Father,  nor  is  his  death  a  vicarious  sacrifice  for 
sin.  The  latitude  observed  in  the  varying  views  of  those  who 
oppose  the  doctrines  of  the  orthodox  creeds,  may  be  accounted 
for  from  the  fact,  that  they  do  not  usually  profess  to  attach  im- 
portance to  a  positive  articulated  creed,  although  they  are  fond 
of  dogmatizing  ;  and  also  to  the  fact  that  their  watchword  is,  *'A 
fair  stage  and  no  favor !"  And  perhaps  also  the  excessive  prudence 
(shall  we  call  it?)  of  the  founder,  the  shadow  of  Arius  himself, 
still  rests  on  his  disciples.  It  is  well  known  that  the  peculiarities 
of  his  dogmas  arose  originally  out  of  his  extreme  and  subtle  and 
abstract  views  concerning  the  terms  Father  and  Son.  The  diffi- 
culty was  more  in  what  he  would  not  say,  than  in  what  he  did 
say.  He  would  never  say  when  it  was,  but  he  would  say  there 
was  a  time  "  when  the  Son  was  not,"  leaving  the  inevitable  infer- 
ence that  the  Son  was  not  God,  but  a  creature.  "  His  heresy," 
says  Stanley,*  "  was  the  excess  of  dogmatism  founded  upon  the 
most  abstract  words,  in  the  most  abstract  region  of  human  thought." 
And  is  not  this  truly  characteristic  of  his  followers,  and  similar 

*  Eastern  Church,  p.  173. 


394  APPENDIX. 

schools  of  theology,  to  this  day  ?  Arius  admitted  Christ's  per- 
sonal existence,  but  said  He  was  only  a  creature,  although  an 
exalted  creature.  Christ  then  was  not  equal  with  God.  And 
from  Simon  Magus  to  this  hour,  is  not  this  the  res  gestcB^  the 
very  substance  of  the  belief,  or  disbelief,  of  all  who  deny  the  Per- 
son, or  the  Divinity,  or  the  equality  of  Christ  with  the  Father  ? 
It  is  of  but  little  consequence  whether  they  are  known  historically 
as  Ebionite  Gnostics,  Arians,  Socinians,  Unitarians,  Transcendent- 
alists,  or  followers  of  the  last  most  popular  writers  on  myths  and 
legends.  Nor  should  it  excite  any  surprise  that  there  should  be 
Buch  a  diversity  of  opinions  concerning  Christ  among  the  followers 
of  Arius,  from  his  day  to  our  own,  for  a  part  of  their  creed  is  to 
have  no  creed.  And  as  they  have  nothing  to  believe,  they  are 
consistent  in  never  saying.  Credo.  But  does  not  this  imply  indif- 
ference to  the  character  of  Christ,  and  is  not  the  fruit  of  such 
indifference  seen  in  the  denial  of  the  Christ  of  the  Apostles'  Creed  ? 

It  would,  however,  require  more  time  and  space,  not  to  say 
learning  and  ability,  than  I  have  at  command,  to  attempt  an 
exhaustive  review  of  the  influence  of  the  Christology  of  the  ante- 
Nicene  age  upon  the  Rationalism  and  Unitarianism  of  our  own 
times.  Such  a  review  would,  of  course,  cover  the  Nicene  age 
itself,  at  least  up  to  the  adoption  of  the  so-called  Athanasian 
Creed,  the  greatest  of  all  Creeds  since  the  days  of  the  Apostles. 
The  general  statement  made  in  the  foregoing  Discourses,  that  in 
the  Apostolic  age  it  was  not  so  much  our  Lord's  Divinity  as  his 
proper  humanity  that  was  the  occasion  of  controversy,  must  be 
limited  to  the  Apostles'  age,  and  interpreted  in  the  light  of  the 
Christology  here  briefly  presented.  And  doubtless  it  was  then 
true,  as  it  is  now  and  always  will  be,  that  some  of  the  teachers 
of  heresy  were  better  than  their  opinions,  while  some  of  the  con- 
fessors of  orthodox  creeds  were  not  equal  to  their  symbols.  It 
is  impassible  for  us  to  define,  limit,  and  describe  the  influence 
of  education.  The  words  of  Apostolic  faith  concerning  God  and 
his  Son  Jesus  Christ,  often  have  an  influence  on  the  experience 
and  belief  and  conduct  of  men  after  they  have  formally  renounced 
them.  They  are  not  aware  of  the  influence  that  still  overshadows 
them. 

Such  conflicting  views  concerning  Christ,  however,  are  no 
more  against  His  Divinity  than  erroneous  and  contradictory  opin- 


APPENDIX.  395 

ions  concerning  the  Almighty  Creator  are  asjainst  our  belief  in  God. 
Truth  is  of  God,  and  is  unchangeable  and  eternal.  But  the  his- 
tory of  Redemption  extends  through  immense  periods  of  time, 
and  embraces  communications  made  to  man  in  different  ways  and 
at  different  times.  It  requires  us  to  contemplate  the  Son  of  God 
before  his  Incarnation,  and  the  Son  of  God  in  human  nature  in 
the  world,  and  the  Son  of  God  in  human  nature  having^  ascended 
into  heaven,  where  He  sitteth  at  the  right  hand  of  God.  Our 
Lord  declared  himself  to  be  the  Son  of  God.  His  followers 
believed  in  Him  as  such.  And  although  his  adversaries  denied 
Him,  they  admitted  that  He  claimed  to  be  the  Messiah.  The  only 
question  between  his  followers  and  his  adversaries,  was  as  to  the 
truth  of  his  claims  to  be  the  Son  of  God.  His  followers  believed ; 
His  enemies  denied.  After  his  ascension,  his  followers  were  so 
filled  with  awe  for  his  character  and  miracles  that  doubts  or 
difficulties  in  regard  to  His  Divinity,  found  no  place  in  their  mind. 
The  great  question  in  the  Apostles'  discourses  before  the  Syna- 
gogues and  Sanhedrim,  was  concerning  Jesus  of  Nazireth  as  the 
Messiah-Christ  of  their  own  Scriptures.  This  qsiestion  settled, 
He  was  received  as  the  Son  of  God,  which  the  Jews  understood 
to  mean  God  himself.  The  great  dispute  in  their  day  was  as  to 
the  real  and  proper  humanity  of  Christ,  rather  than  as  to  His 
Divinity.  The  main  points  at  issue  were  :  Is  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
the  Son  of  God  ?  Did  He  assume  a  human  body,  or  was  h's  body 
a  phantom  ?  Or  was  He  really  born  of  a  woman,  receiving  his 
body  from  her?  Gradually,  however,  errorists  grew  in  nu;)ibers 
and  increased  in  courage,  as  humm  learning  and  philosophy 
gained  an  ascendency  among  Christians,  until  the  Person  of  Christ 
was  not  only  attacked,  but  his  equality  with  God  denied.  When 
Arius  arose  the  main  point  was,  whether  Christ  was  equal  with 
God,  and  was  God,  or  was  a  mere  creature. 

It  should  not,  however,  weigh  against  the  Divine  origin  of 
Christianity  that  it  had  so  soon  to  pass  through  such  severe  doc- 
trinal conflicts ;  for  our  Lord  taught  that  the  wheat  and  tares 
were  to  grow  together  till  He  comes.  It  is  not  surpiising, 
therefore,  that  the  great  Enemy  scarcely  waited  for  Jesus'  a'^cen- 
sion  from  the  world  before  he  began  to  sow  the  tares  of  false 
doctrines.  Before  the  Apostles  themselves  were  dead,  we  find 
Ebionites,  Corinthians,  and  Gnostics  teaching  that  Jesus  was  a 
mere  man.     And  immediately  afterwards,  in  the  second  c.  '  iw. 


396  APPENDIX. 

Theodotus  taught  the  same  doctrine  ;  and  thus  such  errors  were 
kept  alive  until  the  peace  of  the  Church  seemed  to  require  a  general 
Council,  at  Nicaea,  in  order  that  the  voice  of  the  churches  might 
express  what  the  true  faith  of  Christ  was,  and  put  to  silence 
errorists,  or  at  least  hinder  them  from  leading  the  unwary  astray. 
Under  these  circumstances  we  come  to  Arius,  the  most  distin- 
guished of  those  who  denied  the  proper  Divinity  of  our  Lord 
Jesus.  "The sting  of  his  heresy,"  and  of  his  followers,  was  this: 
that  wliile  they  used  complimentary  terms  about  the  sacred 
person  of  Jesus,  and  pronounced  eulogies  upon  his  precepts  and 
character,  still  their  language  was  so  equivocal  as  always  to  leave 
the  point  of  his  Divinity  in  doubt,  even  when  it  was  not  absolutely 
denied.  Even  modern  Unitarians  and  Rationalists  are  not  more 
complimentary,  and  yet  unsettled  and  equivocal  in  their  style  of 
setting  forth  the  character  of  Christ.  But  they  all  agree  with  the 
Arians  of  past  ages  in  denying  our  Lord's  proper  Divinity,  and  his 
vicarious  sacrifice. 

Before  leaving  the  Council  of  Nicsea,  it  is  desirable  to  notice, 
in  a  few  words ; — 

First.  The  fact  that  the  emperor  of  the  world,  sitting  on  the 
throne  of  the  Caesars,  called  this  Council  and  presided  in  it.  And 
this  was  only  a  little  over  three  hundred  years  from  the  birth  of 
Christ.  It  is  to  be  remembered,  also,  that  the  emperor's  great 
object  was  to  obtain  harmony  among  his  bishops  and  consolidate 
Christianity,  so  that  he  might  more  efficiently  advance  it  and  his 
empire. 

Secondly.  The  number  of  its  members,  and  the  marks  of 
suffering  seen  on  thi'ir  persons,  which  they  had  borne  as  witnesses 
for  the  truth  of  Christianity  in  times  of  persecution,  may  well 
command  our  attention  aiid  veneration.  In  such  an  assembly 
there  was  doubtless  a  great  diversity  of  persons  and  some  strongly 
marked  characters.  A  number  of  those  assembled  were  young,  who 
had  never  known  persecution.  They  could  barely  remember  the 
edict  of  toleration  published  in  their  boyhood.  The  older  and  the 
larger  part  of  the  assembly  had  "  lived  through  the  last  and  worst 
of  the  persecutions,  and  they  now  came  like  a  regiment  out  of  some 
frightful  siege  or  battle,  decimated  and  mutilated  by  the  tortures 
or  the  hardships  they  had  undergone."  Most  of  the  older  members 
of  that  Council  had  lost  a  friend  or  a  brother  by  persecution  for  his 


APPENDIX.  397 

profession  of  Christianity.  "  Many  still  bore  the  marks  of  their 
sufferings.  Some  uncovered  their  sides  and  backs  to  show  the 
wounds  inflicted  by  the  instruments  of  torture.  On  others  were 
the  traces  of  that  peculiar  cruelty  which  distinguished  the  last 
persecution.  The  loss  of  the  right  eye,  or  the  searing  of  the 
sinews  of  the  leg,  to  prevent  their  escape  from  working  in  the 
mines.  Both  at  the  time  and  afterwards,  it  was  on  their  char- 
acter as  an  army  of  confessors  and  martyrs,  quite  as  much  as  on 
their  character  as  an  (Ecumenical  Council,  that  their  authority 
reposed.  In  this  respect  no  other  Council,  could  approach  them, 
and  in  the  whole  proceedings  of  the  Assembly,  the  voice  of  an 
old  confessor  was  received  almost  as  an  oracle."* 

Thirdly.  We  should  note  the  place  assigned  in  this  Council  to 
the  Word  of  God,  and  their  testimony  concerning  it  and  their 
own  worth.  In  the  twenty-first  Article  in  the  Canons  of  this 
Council,  it  is  said  :  "  Things  ordained  as  necessary  for  salvation 
have  neither  strength  nor  authority  unless  it  may  be  declared 
that  they  are  taken  out  of  Holy  Scriptuie."  And  accordingly, 
after  the  preliminary  discussions  had  taken  place,  and  every  thing 
was  prepared  for  the  opening  of  the  Council  by  the  personal 
appearance  of  the  emperor,  we  are  then  told  how  they  honored 
the  Divine  Word.  The  chamber  being  a  large  oblong  hall,  in  the 
centre  of  the  imperial  palace,  and  the  benches  being  arranged  so 
that  the  Bishops  and  their  attendants,  who  were  very  numerous, 
were  seated  according  to  their  dignity  ;  and  then,  in  the  centre  of 
the  room,  on  a  throne,  was  placed  a  copy  of  the  Holy  Gospels,  as 
the  nearest  approach  to  the  presence  of  Christ  himself  as  presiding 
in  the  Council ;  and  near  this  there  was  another  smaller  throne, 
carved  in  wood  and  richly  gilt,  on  which  the  emperor  sat.  And 
according  to  Wescott,f  such  honor  was  usually  accorded  to  the 
Scriptures  in  the  Councils  of  those  days,  at  least  of  those  held 
after  the  Council  of  Nicsea.  And  he  is  supported  by  Suicer,  and 
by  the  picture  of  the  Council  at  Nic8ea.J  Thus  did  they  teach 
that  the  use  of  creeds  or  catechisms  is  to  assist  us  to  a  form  of 
sound  words,  so  that  we  may  more  easily  and  more  fully  appre- 

*  Stanley's  Eastern  Church,  p.  186. 

f  Wescott  on  the  Canon. 

%  Stanley's  Eastern  Church,  p.  212. 


398  APPEJS^DIX. 

hend  sound  doctrines.  We  are  to  believe  concerning  God  and 
the  Holy  Trinity  what  is  revealed  to  us  in  the  Scriptures,  and  to 
obey  and  do  just  as  the  Scriptures  teach  us.  As  the  solar  system, 
in  all  its  awful  grandeur,  existed  before  there  was  a  son  of  Adam 
to  study  and  map  out  the  heavens,  so  our  holy  faith  existed  before 
there  was  a  syllable  of  our  Book-Revelation,  or  any  Creed  formu- 
lated, or  system  of  theology  taught,  or  any  Council,  Pope,  Convo- 
cation, or  Assembly  to  pour  anathemas  on  all  who  cannot  pro- 
nounce the  approved  Shibboleths.  Nor  is  it  possible  for  any  one 
Creed,  nor  for  all  human  Creeds,  to  circumscribe  the  Truth  and 
Grace  of  God.  Our  faith  is  larger  than  Creeds.  And  may  God 
grant  not  only  that  we  may  steadf  jstly  hold  them,  but  be  filled 
with  the  Spirit  of  God,  which  is  the  life  of  religion. 

Fourthly.  Something  as  to  the  use  of  Creeds  may  be  easily 
learned  from  their  influence  on  Christendom.  Strauss,  in  speak- 
ing of  the  Apostles'  Creed  (§  142),  says:  "Along  with  this  popu- 
lar form  of  confession  of  faith  in  Christ,  there  sprang  up  at  the 
same  time  a  more  precise  elaboration,  induced  by  the  differences 
and  disputes  which  were  early  manifested  on  isolated  points." 

Next  to  the  Holy  Scriptures,  the  Christology  of  the  three 
creeds  is  to  be  considered  the  greatest  legacy  of  doctrinal  truth 
that  we  have  received  from  past  ages.  And,  all  things  taken 
into  a  fair  account,  they  are  remarkable  for  the  clear,  simple,  and 
brief  manner  in  which  they  express  the  fundaraent.il  articles  of 
religion.  The  Apostles'  Creed  may  be  considered  the  summary 
of  Christian  faith  before  the  Council  of  Nicsea,  and  the  Nicene- 
Constantinople  Creed  as  the  work  of  its  own  times,  and  the 
so-called  Athanasian  Creed  as  the  articulated  faith  of  the  Catho- 
lic Church,  from  the  close  of  the  fourth  or  middle  of  the  fifth 
century.  The  errors  aimed  at  are  not  always  named,  but  clearly 
seen  in  the  way  the  true  faith  is  expressed.  These  creeds  were 
formed  under  the  light  of  and  with  all  the  advantages  of  the 
culture  of  Greek  and  Roman  literature.  No  age  of  the  Church 
had  ever  been  able  to  employ  more  cultivated  ability  for  the  using 
of  precision  and  accuracy  in  terms,  than  that  of  the  Council  of 
Nicaea  and  the  age  of  Athanasius.  And  these  creeds  wore 
formed  to  deny  and  refute  the  heresies  of  the  Cerinthians,  Ebion- 
ites,  Gnostics,  Docetse,  of  Basilius  and  Basilides,  and  of  Apol- 
linaris,  and  of  the  Nestorians  and  Eutychians,  and    are  equally 


APPENDIX.  399 

valuable  as  summaries  of  sound  doctrine,  in  modern  times,  for 
both  Protestant  and  Roman  Catholic  churches,  as  against  Natu- 
ralism, Pantheism,  Transcendentalism,  or  Socinianism,  or  Unita- 
rian ism. 

Among  the  first  acts  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  with  the  assent  of 
the  English  clergy  in  their  convocation,  was  one  to  raise  the 
Councils  of  Nicaea,  Constantinople,  and  Chalcedon,  as  judges  of 
heresy,  to  the  same  level  as  the  High  Court  of  Parliament.  And 
the  doctrines  of  these  Councils  have  been  widely  received  as  on 
a  level  with  the  Holy  Scriptures  themselves,  and  their  decrees 
made  equal  to  imperial  laws.  And  in  the  Russian  Church,  every 
Article  of  the  Nicene  Creed  is  exhibited  by  series  of  pictures,  in 
books,  and  on  the  walls  of  their  chapels,  for  the  purpose  of  making 
the  articles  of  their  faith  familiar  to  the  popular  miud.*  The 
Nicene  Creed  is  the  test  of  orthodoxy  and  the  bond  of  faith  in 
all  the  Eastern  Churches.  In  fact,  it  is  the  accepted  Creed  of 
the  Church  Universal ;  for  the  Apostles'  Creed  and  the  so-called 
Athanasian  Creed  have  never  been  incorporated  formally  into  the 
ritual  of  the  Greek  Church. 

And  not  only  are  such  articulated  forms  of  faith  bulwarks  of 
Christian  doctrine,  unless  emasculated  or  corrupted  by  an  alli- 
ance with  secular  power,  or  prostituted  to  partisan  politics,  but 
they  are  incorporated  into  the  daily  devotional  life  of  the  people. 
The  faithful  are  taught  them  in  their  youth,  and  they  are  recited 
at  the  festivals  or  sacraments  of  the  Church. 

But  all  these  creeds  were  the  work  of  fallible  men,  or  of  councils 
of  fallible  men,  having  the  defects  of  judgment  common  to  other 
men,  and  liable  to  be  swayed  by  just  such  influences  as  all  other 
assemblies  are  subject  to,  not  to  say,  as  history  strongly  intimates, 
even  more  liable  to  violence  than  many  other  kinds  of  assemblies. 
In  proof  of  this  Vv^e  may  cite  the  violence  of  the  Council  of  Con- 
stance in  the  murder  of  John  Huss,  and  of  the  second  Council  of 
Ephesus  in  trampling  to  death  the  Bishop  of  Constantinople  by 
his  reverence  the  Bishop  of  Alexandria;  and  also  the  violence  and 
outrageous  scenes  of  the  Council  of  Chalcedon.  In  the  twenty- 
first  Article,  already  referred  to,  the  Council  of  Nicaea  says  : — 
"  Forasmuch  as  such  Councils  are  assemblies  of  men,  whereof  all 

*  Stanley's  Eastern  Church,  pp.  147-150. 


400  APPENDIX. 

be  not  governed  with  the  Spirit  and  Word  of  God,  they  may  err, 
and  sometimes  have  erred,  even  in  things  pertaining  unto  God." 
It  is  well  known  that  the  personal  presence  of  the  emperor  Con- 
stantine  scarcely  sufficed  to  keep  down  violence  and  preserve 
order  in  the  august  Council  of  NicsBa.  Dean  Milman,  in  his 
Latin  Christianity,  and  the  Great  Gregory,  have  said  some 
exceedingly  severe  but  just  things  about  the  prejudice  and  pas- 
sion of  general  councils.  Are  not  all  these  things  written  in 
Eusebius,  Mansi,  Gibbon,  Mosheim,  and  many  others  ? 

^or,Ji/ihli/,  can  anyone  fail,  in  turning  over  the  points  even  of 
this  brief  review,  to  be  struck  with  the  identity,  the  essential  same- 
ness of  what  are  now  recognized  as  the  true  evangelical,  ortho- 
dox views  of  Christ,  with  the  opinions  of  the  Church  in  the  early 
ages ;  and  so,  on  the  other  hand,  the  identity  of  the  views  that 
are  now  recognized  by  the  great  majority  of  Christians  as  erro- 
neous, concerning  the  person  of  Christ,  with  those  that  were  con- 
demned as  heresies  in  the  early  ages  by  the  Church,  is  no  less 
clear  and  distinct.  Those  who  now  deny  the  proper  Divinity  of 
our  Lord,  and  take  away  from  us  his  expiatory  death,  are  nothing 
less  than  the  old  Ebionites  who  have  furbished  up  the  soiled 
armor  of  the  Gnostics. 

Nor,  sixthly^  should  we  overlook  the  fact,  that  in  the  second, 
third,  and  fourth  centuries,  the  errors  that  called  out  the  delibera- 
tive utterances  of  the  faithful,  were  chiefly  imported  into  the 
Church  from  ritualism  on  the  one  hand,  and  from  philosophy  on 
the  other.  Judaizers  and  Greek  philosophei-s,  becoming  Christian 
theologians,  gained  a  point  from  which  they  sought  to  ingraft 
new  life  upon  their  systems.  Nor  did  they  labor  wholly  in  vain. 
Christianity  did  put  life  into  the  world  as  the  civilization  of 
Greece  and  Rome  had  never  been  able  to  do.  The  Cross  rose  as 
the  world's  luminary  over  the  paling  fires  of  Greek  and  Roman 
altars.  In  the  theological  errors  of  the  early  ages  of  the  Church, 
we  see  the  dying  struggles  of  the  old  heathen  philosophy.* 
And  this,  moreover,  is  a  point  that  should  not  pass  by  us  unheed- 
ed. The  corruptions  of  the  faith  and  worship  of  our  day  are  the 
fruits  of  the  very  same  things.  In  the  last  chapter  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews  we  are  strongly  urged  to  steadfastness  in  the 

*  See  Hypatia,  passim.    By  Rev.  C.  Kingslej. 


APPENDIX.  401 

faith,  because  of  the  fulness  and  completeness  of  "  Jesus  Christ, 
who  is  the  same  yesterday,  and  to-day,  and  forever.  Be  not  car- 
ried about  with  divers  and  strange  doctrines."  Here,  variegated 
doctrines  mean  such  as  blended  the  law  and  the  Gospel,  and  re- 
quired circumcision  before  baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  and 
taught  that  the  way  into  the  Church  of  Christ  was  through  Ju- 
daism. Is  not  this  ritualism?  And  here,  strange  doctrines  mean 
foreign  doctrines — doctrines  brought  irom  Greek  and  Roman 
philosopliy,  from  the  Transcendentalists  of  Greece  and  the  Pan- 
theists of  Asia.  Strange  doctrines  were  sucli  as  had  not  the 
authority  of  the  Word  of  God,  and  were  unknown  to  the  Apostles' 
Creed.  What  was,  is,  and  that  which  hath  been,  is  what  is  to  be 
mitil  the  Son  of  Man  is  revealed.  We  must  guard  against  will 
worship,  variegated  as  well  as  strange  doctrines^  a  sensual  ritual- 
ism and  a  vain  philosophy. 

As  reference  has  been  made  in  one  or  two  places  in  the  preceding 
discourses  to  the  singular  confusion  of  the  Koran  concerning  our 
Lord,  a  few  facts  from  the  history  of  Mohammed's  education  and 
religious  experience  are  proper,  and  will,  at  the  same  time,  be  in 
evidence  as  to  the  numerous  Apocryphal  Gospels  that  existed  in 
the  early  ages,  which  have  also  already  been  alluded  to.  It  is 
plain,  from  the  almost  endless  legends  of  Mohammed's  life,  that 
his  knowledge  of  the  Old  Testament  and  of  Christianity  was  de- 
rived from  a  Syrian  or  Nestorian  monk  of  Bostra,  who  was  with 
him  in  his  journeys  as  a  camel-driver.  Consequently  the  local 
legends  of  Syrian  or  Arabian  Christians  formed  the  ground-work 
of  Mahomet's  knowledge  of  Christianity.  These  formed  the 
Christ  of  the  Arabian  prophet.  The  genuine  canonical  Gospels 
were  almost  or  altogether  unknown  to  him.  But  the  apocryj)hal 
Gospels,  which  were  enshrined  in  so  many  of  the  traditions  of  the 
East  in  his  day,  were  familiar  to  him,  and  hence  we  are  at  no  loss 
to  know  how  he  came  to  fall  into  so  many  errors  cor^cerning  our 
Lord.  The  resemblance  and  the  contrast,  the  errors  and  the 
truth,  foimd  in  the  doctrines  and  legends  of  the  Koran,  are  easily 
traced  to  the  prevailing  traditions  that  were  known  to  Mo- 
hammed. Nor  is  this  remark  to  be  limited  to  the  case  of  Mo- 
hammed. The  nnhelief  oi  i\\Q  West  is  as  philosophically  account- 
ed for  as  the  misbelief  of  the  East ;  and  both  are  the  fruits  of 
ignorance  as  to  the  true  character  of  our  Lord,  and  as  to  the 
nature  of  His  kingdom.  As  we  forgive  the  skeptics  of  the  last 
2G 


402  appe:ndix. 

century,  at  least  find  an  excuse  for  their  unbelief,  and  for 
their  hatred  of  Christianity,  because  "they  only  knew  it  as  repre- 
sented by  the  corrupt  monarchy  and  hierarchy  of  France,  so  may 
we  still  more  forgive  Mohammed  for  the  inferior  place  which  he 
assigned  amongst  the  Prophets  to  Him  whom  he  knew  not  as  the 
Christ  of  the  Four  Evangelists,  but  as  the  Christ  of  the  Gospel 
of  the  Infancy  or  of  Nicodemus." — Stanley'^ s  Eastern  Ch.^  p.  367. 

HI.  The  Aspect  of  Modern  Thought  concerning  the  Christ  of 
the  Evangelists. 

God's  written  Word  and  the  Incarnate  Word  are  in  two 
respects  very  much  alike.  Both  are  human  and  divine,  and  both 
have  met  with  great  opposition  and  with  great  success  in  the 
world.  The  Bible  is  the  Word  of  God  in  human  language.  Jesus 
Christ  is  God  manifest  in  human  nature.  The  Bible  has  been 
more  frequently  burned,  and  more  severely  criticised,  and  more 
violently  opposed,  than  any  other  or  than  all  other  books,  and 
still  the  "  words  of  the  Lord  are  pure  words  ;  as  silver  tried  in  a 
furnace  of  earth,  purified  seven  times  ;"  so  the  person  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  has  been  subjected  to  a  more  laborious,  searching 
examination,  both  by  friends  and  enemies,  than  any  other  has  ever 
sustained  on  earth.  His  character  has  stood  such  a  test  of  criti- 
cism as  no  other  can  possibly  bear.  Nor  do  we  complain  of  this. 
It  is  a  necessary  condition  of  His  claims  and  of  human  responsibility. 
Never  man  spake  like  Him.  Never  was  there  a  character  like  Him 
upon  earth  before.  Never,  neither  before  nor  since  His  coming,  has 
there  been  such  a  kingdom  as  His  set  up.  It  was  to  be  expected, 
therefore,  that  His  life  and  the  nature  of  His  kingdom  would  be  sub- 
jected to  the  most  profound  and  exhaustive  investigations.  The 
fact  is  now  simply  on  this  wise  :  More  than  eighteen  centuries  have 
passed  since  Jesus  was  born,  and  He  is  now  confessedly  the  central 
figure  in  the  literary,  philosophical,  and  material  progressive  history 
of  the  worlcf.  The  intellectual  powers  and  the  aifections  of  man- 
kind were  never  so  universally  directed  towards  Him  as  they  are 
now.  Even  if  we  admit  that  there  was  in  some  former  periods 
greater  simplicity,  or  more  intensity  of  faith  in  particular  sections 
of  the  Church,  or  a  greater  enthusiasm  or  devotion  to  His  person 
among  the  martyrs  and  confessors,  still  it  is  true,  there  is  now  moie 
intelligent  mind,  more  learning  and  intellect,  and  a  greater  breadth 
of  interest  directed  towards  Christ  than  at  any  former  period  of 


APPENDIX.  403 

the  vrorld's  history.  And  even  those  who  deny  His  miracles  and  do 
not  look  to  Him  for  salvation,  admit  the  dignity  and  moral  purity 
of  the  character  represented  by  the  name  Christ,  and  vie  with  one 
another  in  rendering  Him  the  highest  eulogy.  They  generally 
agree  in  saying  that  He  is  a  person  whom  mere  human  history 
does  not  altogether  explain — "  Unique  in  the  history  of  the  world, 
beautiful  and  sublime." — Renan. 

Nor  is  it  here  imworthy  of  remark,  that  as  each  age  has  its 
own  mission,  and  makes  its  own  literature,  so  each  age  of  the 
Church  has  had  its  specialities.  In  the  Apostolic  age,  for  the  most 
part,  our  Lord's  Divinity  was  regarded  by  his  followers  very  much 
in  the  same  light  as  the  existence  of  God  is  in  the  Bible.  Formal 
statements  concerinng  it  seemed  unnecessary.  And  the  greatest 
difterences  of  opinion  among  them,  immediately  after  the  Apostles' 
days,  arose  about  the  person  of  Christ,  and  chiefly  as  to  the  reality 
of  his  proper  human  nature.  The  canon  of  Holy  Scripture  soon 
excited  great  attention,  but  none  too  much,  nor  any  too  soon. 
For  apocryphal  writings,  claiming  to  be  from  inspired  Apostles 
and  teachers,  were  numerous  at  an  early  day.  And  so,  also, 
it  became  necessary  for  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  and  the  nature 
of  Christ's  Kingdom,  and  the  proper  sphere  of  His  Church,  to  be 
stated  and  understood.  And  so  in  the  sixteenth  century,  the  doc- 
trine of  justification  by  faith,  the  right  of  private  judgment, 
liberty  of  conscience,  nnd  the  authority  of  the  Word  of  God,  excited 
special  attention,  and  were  elaborately  set  forth.  We  do  not 
mean  that  the  Articles  of  Faith  alluded  to  were  not  known  before 
the  times  indicated  respectively,  or  that  all  the  deliverances  made 
concerning  them  are  infallibly  true,  or  that  their  advocates  have 
always  been  consistent.  Far  from  it.  But  we  do  mean  that  cei- 
tain  views  of  doctrine,  or  certain  articles  of  religious  faith  have  at 
different  times  commanded  attention  as  specialities.  In  our  day 
the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  the  historic  verity  of  our  Gospels, 
and  pre-eminently  the  questions.  Who  is  Christ,  and  what  is  the 
future  of  Christianity,  are  the  most  prominent. 

Christianity  is  now  au  acknowledged  fact.  It  is  the  great 
force  or  power  of  the  world  in  the  nineteenth  century.  It  is  seen 
in  our  arts  and  laws,  and  in  the  administration  of  justice  and  of 
international  comity.  It  must  have  had  a  beginning.  There  was 
a  time  when  the  nations  of  the  world  knew  nothing  of  it.     But 


40.4  APPENDIX. 

now  the  great  nations  of  the  earth,  who  wield  the  elements  of 
power  on  this  globe,  all  profess  to  have  adopted  Christianity  as 
their  religion.  And  the  historic  evidences  for  its  beginning  about 
eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  and  of  its  spreading  among  the 
nations,  are  before  us  and  challenge  our  scrutiny.  What,  then,  is 
the  origin  of  this  world-admitted  fact,  that  Christianity  is  now 
tlie  great  power  of  our  globe  ?  Is  Christianity  the  scheme  or  sys- 
tem of  a  mere  man  ?  Or  is  it  the  outgrowth  of  art  and  science, 
or  an  effect  from  the  mere  progress  of  society  ?  Is  it  the  work  of 
a  fanatic  or  of  an  impostor,  or  is  it  the  natural  result  of  the  wants 
of  man  expressed  systematically,  but  founded  upon  a  myth  ?  Or 
is  it  of  divine  origin  ?  The  fact  of  Christianity  implies  the  exist- 
ence of  Christ  as  a  person,  unless  his  existence  is  historically  dis- 
proved. And  if  the  Bible  is  all  nothing  but  a  great  parable,  or  if 
Jesus  was  merely  a  man,  though  as  wise  as  Socrates,  Plato,  or 
Confucius,  how  has  it  come  to  pass  that  thousands  of  thousands 
have  adopted  His  moral  lessons,  although  they  differ  from  those 
to  which  they  are  naturally  inclined  and  educated?  And  how  did 
it  come  to  pass  that  His  followers  admired  him  so  much  that  they 
attributed  miracles  to  Him,  though,  according  to  our  opponents, 
He  never  wrought  a  miracle ;  that  they  clothed  him  with  Divinity 
and  believed  him  to  be  their  long-promised  Messiah,  though  he 
never  in  a  single  instance  met  their  expectations  concerning  the 
Messiah,  nor  in  a  single  known  instance  did  he  comply  with  what 
tliey  wished  him  to  do  if  He  were  the  Messiah?  It  is  an  old  and 
a  common,  but  still  a  very  true  remark,  that  the  establishing  of 
Christianity  without  miracles — of  a  religion  supernatural,  and  yet 
based  on  an  appeal  to  miracles  which  were  never  wrought — 
would  be  a  far  greater  wonder  than  all  the  Scripture  miracles  put 
together. 

Given  the  fact,  that  a  Galilean  of  obscure  birth,  without  wealth 
or  learning,  or  political  influence,  overthrew  the  religions  of  the 
world,  and  established  his  own,  confessedly  the  most  moral  and 
spiritual  the  world  has  ever  seen,  and  that  it  is  now  the  religion 
of  all  the  most  civilized  nations — that  the  empire  of  this  globe  is 
now  in  the  hands  of  Christian  nations — and  where  is  the  explana- 
tion, if  Jesus  is  not  the  Son  of  God  ?  It  was  an  attempt  to 
answer  this  question  that  brought  out,  a  little  more  than  thirty 
years  ago,  Strauss's  "  Life  of  Jesus."  This  was  a  marked  era  in 
the  history  of  Christianity — the  most  marked,  in  some  respects. 


APPENDIX.  405 

that  had  occurred  since  the  Council  of  Nicaea.  Strauss's  work 
is  far  the  ablest  of  modern  times  on  his  side  of  the  question.  It 
"startled  the  world  like  a  clap  of  thunder  out  of  a  calm  sky." 
As  his  main  force  was  in  pulling  down,  it  was  not  strange  that 
Christians  refused  at  his  summons  to  abandon  their  faith  in  the 
Christ  of  the  Apostles'  Creed,  who  is  the  Christ  of  the  Evange- 
lists and  of  history.  It  was  to  be  expected  they  would  defend 
the  foundations  of  their  faith.  And  although  it  is  not  our  imme- 
diate purpose  in  this  place  to  enter  into  any  investigation  con- 
cerning the  authority  of  the  Gospels,  we  may  be  allowed  to  say 
that  the  Christ  of  the  Synoptists  is  identical  with  the  Christ  of 
John's  Gospel;  or,  in  other  words,  that  we  have  one  Gospel  in 
four,  and  four  in  one.  The  life  of  the  God-man  is  draAvn  for  ua 
by  four  artists,  but  it  is  the  same  life  of  the  same  person.  We 
have  four  pictures,  each  original  and  independent,  but  all  true 
copies  of  the  same  original. 

Destructive,  however,  as  Strauss's  work  was,  he  }ias  not  re- 
frained from  it,  but  in  his  new  Life  of  Jesus,  still  tells  us  miracles 
are  absolutely  impossible,  and  our  Gospels  are  therefore  mere 
myths,  without  any  real  foundation  in  history.  Substantially, 
althougli  differing  in  details,  the  same  result  is  reached  by  the 
learned  criticisms  of  the  Tubingen  school  and  the  eloquent  roman- 
cing of  Kenan's  "Life  of  Jesus."  Renan  rejects  myths  only  to 
substitute  legends.  We  shall  endeavor  elsewhere,  as  we  proceed, 
to  see  wherein  the  strength  of  these  champions  of  unbelief  and 
disbelief  and  misbelief  lies,  and  to  show  that  their  strength  is 
nothing  but  weakness.  In  the  mean  time,  every  one  who  desires 
it  may  find  a  happy  solution  of  the  question  concerning  the  time 
when  our  Gospels  were  written,  in  a  small  work  by  Professor  Con- 
stantine  Tischendorf  This  pamphlet  of  M.  Tischendorf  may  well 
be  set  against  all  that  MM.  Strauss,  Bauer,  and  Renan  have  said 
about  the  age  of  our  Gospels.  It  shows  conclusively,  and  in  a 
brief  way,  that  our  Gospel  histories  are  records  most  trustworthy, 
and  may  be  historically  traced  back  to  the  very  times  of  the 
Apostles  themselves. 

The  intense  interest  so  widely  acknowledged  on  such  subjects 
is  proof  that  whatever  may  be  the  errors  of  our  times,  ours  is  not 
an  age  of  indifference.  The  love  of  many  of  Christ's  people  has 
waxed  cold,  sad  declensions  have  taken  place  in  many  parts  of  the 


406  APPENDIX. 

Christian  Church,  and  iniquity  abounds;  still  there  are  a  few 
names,  as  in  Sardis  of  old,  which  have  not  defiled  their  garments. 
True  faith  is  yet  upon  the  earth,  and  in  it  there  is  life  for  the 
nations.  Nor  is  there  any  other  hope  for  the  true  reformation  of 
mankind  and  the  world's  true  progress  than  the  Gospel. 

1.  Then  there  is  such  a  thing  as  faith,  belief,  which  is,  in  a 
religious  sense,  a  firm  persuasion  of  the  truths  of  religion ;  and  a 
believer  is  one  who  gives  credit  to  the  truth  of  the  Bible  as  a 
revelation  from  God,  or,  more  strictly,  one  who  receives  Christ  as 
his  Saviour  as  He  is  offered  in  the  Gospel.  To  have  true  belief, 
therefore,  implies  knowledge,  and  a  true  assent  to  it  and  trust  in 
it.  It  is  plain  we  cannot  believe  till  we  have  some  knowledge  of 
what  is  to  be  believed.  We  cnnuot  believe  in  a  man  of  whose 
existence  we  have  never  heard.  Correct  knowledge,  then,  is  im- 
portant. For  a  man  may  not  be  a  believer  in  Christianity,  simply 
because  he  knows  nothing  of  it,  as  the  heathen,  or  even  as  some 
in  Christendom,  who  are  in  profound  ignorance  for  the  want  of 
education. 

2.  Unbelief  is  negative.  It  refuses  to  admit  belief.  But  it  is 
an  act  as  well  as  belief. 

3.  Disbelief  is  also  a  refusal  to  give  credit — a  denial  of  belief 
It  is  the  act  of  disbelieving — rejecting  evidence  offered  which 
belief  accepts.  It  is,  therefore,  a  stronger  term  than  unbelief  A 
disbeliever,  therefore,  is  one  who  has  some  knowledge  of  Chris- 
tianity, but  rejects  its  evidences.  He  has  the  proofs  more  or  less 
before  him,  but  incurs  the  guilt  of  setting  them  aside.  There  is, 
then,  more  hope  of  saving  an  unbeliever  than  a  disbeliever,  for  the 
unbeliever  may  still  be  open  to  light — his  want  of  faith  may  be 
owing  to  his  ignorance  or  stupidity.  He  may  yet  be  enhghtened 
and  convinced;  but  disbelief  has  already  rejected  the  light. 

4.  Misbelief  is  the  belief  of  falsehood,  an  erroneous  belief  It 
implies  the  possibility  of  an  amiable,  teachable  disposition,  but 
misled.  The  etymologies  of  these  terms  and  the  lexicons  are  at 
hand  to  verify  the  importance  of  distinguishing  them.  Perhaps 
all  are  ready  to  admit  that  such  distinction  is  of  great  use  to  pi-e- 
vent  confusion  or  injustice  in  such  discussions.  At  least  it  is  not 
without  design  that  I  use  the  phrases  "  unbelieving  science  "  and 
"  disbelieving  criticism."     Disbelieving  criticism  means  that  the 


APPENDIX.  407 

proofs  of  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures,  and  for  the  Divinity  of 
Christ,  and  the  personal  immortality  of  the  soul  have  been  weighed 
like  Belshazzar,  and  found  wanting — that  they  have  been  examined 
by  competent  persons,  who  had  a  right  to  examine  them,  and  that 
they  have  done  full  justice  to  them  in  the  examination,  and  have 
found  them  defective,  not  to  be  believed,  and  they  therefore  are 
rejected.  Disbelieving  criticism  takes  from  us,  therefore,  at  once 
our  Bible  and  our  Saviour,  and  leaves  us  nothing  in  their  place. 
We  arc  left  to  grope  a  while  in  darkness,  and  then  feel  our  way 
down  to  eternal  night.  And  it  is  just  hero,  in  the  very  beginning, 
that  Strauss's  myths  and  Renan's  legends  break  down.  For  if  we 
have  no  credible  sacred  writers  there  is  nothing  to  discuss.  There 
is  no  original  subject  for  dissection.  Accordingly,  Ebrard*  asserts 
that  it  was  not  historical  discrepancies  in  the  Gospels,  but  dog- 
matic doubts  about  the  Divinity  of  Christ,  the  reality  of  His 
miracles  and  the  fact  of  His  resurrection,  which  first  led  the  nega- 
tive critics  to  dispute  the  historical  character  of  the  four  Gospels. 
That  is,  they  did  not  like  to  believe  the  Articles  of  the  Faith  com- 
monly received  by  Christians,  and  therefore  they  went  to  work  to 
destroy  the  historic  verity  of  the  writers  who  have  given  us  the 
life  of  the  Founder  of  our  Faith.  Unheliemng  science  does  not 
directly  belong  to  the  line  of  my  present  discussion ;  but  it  may 
be  proper  here  to  say,  that  it  is  more  modest,  but  quite  as 
dangerous  as  disbelieving  criticism*  It  is  so  diffident  that  it  does 
not  profess  to  know  any  thing,  not  even  whether  there  be  a  God 
or  no.  It  scarcely  over  names  the  God  of  the  Bible,  as  if  its 
reverence  for  the  ineffable  name  was  even  greater  than  that  of  the 
pious  old  Hebrews.  And  yet  it  does  not  deny  His  existence  out- 
right. It  is  far  too  prudent  for  that.  It  goes  to  work  to  show 
that  there  is  no  need  of  a  Creator  God — that  the  universe  can  be 
accounted  for  and  taken  care  of  without  a  God.  Forces,  laws, 
iiatura  naturans^  or  at  least  sometliing  of  this  sort,  explains  every 
thing.  And  then  the  philosophical  maxim  is  applied,  If  there  is  no 
need  of  a  God,  of  course  there  is  none.  At  least,  there  is  no 
supreme  conscious  personal  intelligence,  and  hence  there  is  no 
creation,  no  revelation,  no  being  for  man  to  pray  to,  and  there  is 
no  Saviour.     Man,  as  far  as  he  is  any  thing,  is  a  "  development," 


Gospel  History,  p.  47i 


408  APPENDIX. 

a  "  continuity,"  a  "  transformation,"  a  "  transmigration ;"  and  all 
this  these  very  scientific  men  talk  about,  without  telling  us  how 
any  thing  ever  came  into  being  at  first  which  has  developed  and 
continues  in  such  a  marvellous  way.  If  there  were  half  a  dozen 
pairs  of  Adams  and  Eves,  or  if  man  has  developed  himself  out  of 
an  Eastern  monkey  or  an  African  gorilla,  or  grew  like  a  tape- 
worm, whence  the  originals  ?  The  main  point,  however,  in  the 
direction  of  our  argument  is  this :  that  this  modest,  unbelieving 
science  brings  out  as  a  result,  quite  as  strongly  as  disbelieving 
criticism,  the  doctrine,  that  Moses  and  the  Apostles  are  not  to  be 
believed  as  historic  verities.  Lamarck,  Roca,  Huxley,  Lyell, 
Darwin,  Nott,  Gliddon,  and  Morton,  advance  under  the  garb  of 
science  to  undermine  the  foundations  of  our  Faith.  Disbelieving 
criticism,  under  a  legion  of  banners  and  with  variegated  devices,  is 
working  for  the  same  result.  Rationalists,  neologists  of  all  schools, 
both  of  ideal  and  material  Pantheism,  whether  swearing  by  Come- 
rius,  Reimarus,  Paulus,  Spinoza,  Strauss,  Channing,  Theodore 
Parker,  Colenso,  or  Renan — all  are  neither  more  nor  less  than  the 
successors  of  the  Ebionites  and  of  the  various  schools  of  the 
Gnostics  and  Arians  of  former  ages — and  if  they  could  all  succeed 
in  their  attack,  they  would  bury  themselves  and  us  in  fathomless 
ruins.  Still  we  plead  for  free  inquiry  and  perfect  religious  liberty. 
It  is  not  according  to  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel  to  denounce  all  critical 
investigations  concerning  the  origin  and  character  of  Christianity. 
Truth  never  fears  scrutiny.  The  waves  of  critical  unbelieving 
learning,  as  they  roll  over  us,  may  wash  away  the  drift,  but  the 
ibundation  rock  will  stand. 

Our  Lord's  history  is  not  more  sacred  than  it  is  intensely 
human.  And  if  such  writers  as  Renan  and  the  author  of  Ecce 
Homo  arouse  the  Church  to  study  more  carefully  the  life  of  our 
Lord,  and  bring  us  into  closer  sympathy  with  Him,  then  they 
will  have  done  a  good  work.  It  is  unquestionably  true  that  our 
great  theologians  since  the  Reformation  have  generally  kept  us 
out  in  the  cold,  gazing  up  into  heaven  upon  our  risen  Lord, 
having  his  head  encircled  with  the  glory  of  Eternity,  and  sitting 
on  the  right  hand  of  the  Throne  of  God,  until  we  had  almost  for- 
gotten that  He  ever  walked  the  pebbly  roads  of  Judea  and  Galilee 
with  real  human  feet,  and  thirsted  at  Jacob's  well,  or  wept  at  the 
grave  of  his  friend  Lazarus.      No  small  part  of  the  power  of 


APPENDIX.  409 

Edward  Irving  and  of  the  late  Rev.  Mr.  Robertson  of  Brighton, 
as  preachers,  lay  in  the  deep  sympathy  with  which  they  intro- 
duced their  hearers  to  the  humanity  of  our  Lord.  As  there  is  a 
natural  tendency  in  every  mind  that  is  at  enmity  with  God — a 
lurking  disposition  to  avowed  unbelief  in  every  unrenewed  heart 
— it  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  favoring  Providence  that  we  are  con- 
tinually receiving  aid  and  strength  as  learning  and  science 
advance.  The  progress  of  Art  does  not  destroy  the  sense  of  the 
beautiful.  Nor  has  "  the  advancement  of  science  any  more  ten- 
dency to  extirpate  religion  than  it  has  to  extirpate  morality." — 
Professor  Fisher.  The  searching  criticism  and  the  thorough 
examination  of  old  manuscripts,  and  the  readings  of  coins  and 
pillars,  and  cylinders  and  bricks,  and  tombs  and  palaces,  are  like 
so  many  voices  coming  to  us  from  the  long-buried  past  to  testify 
to  tlie  truth  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  It  is  certainly  a  remarkable 
feature  in  tlie  critical  history  of  our  times  that  a  manuscript  Bible 
like  that  of  Tischendorf,  from  Mount  Sinai,  and  various  old 
versions  from  distant  and  different  parts  of  the  world,  have  been 
found  and  collated  at  great  expense,  and  that  on  every  side,  from 
all  these  sources,  the  united  testimony  is  a  confirmation  of  our 
faith  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth  as  the  Christ,  God's  only  Son,  our 
Lord. 

Our  unbelieving  physicists,  for  the  most  part,  are  content  to 
leave  us  without  any  effort  to  furnish  us  with  a  positive  religion. 
Their  mission  seems  to  be  to  suggest  doubt,  destroy  belief,  by 
intimating  insuperable  difficulties  in  the  way  of  our  book-Reve- 
lation, and  against  the  supernatural  origin  of  Christianity.  But 
our  disbelieving  critics  go  further.  As  they  deny  the  historical 
character  of  tlie  Gospels,  as  they  have  pulled  down,  as  they  think, 
the  superstructure  of  the  generally  received  faith,  so  they  admit 
they  are  under  some  obligations  to  build  up  another ;  and  if  they 
have  failed,  it  is  neither  for  the  w.mt  of  a  will,  nor  for  the  want 
of  learning  and  genius,  nor  yet  for  the  want  of  a  patient  endu- 
rance of  labor  and  devotion  to  their  self-imposed  task.  They 
admit  the  justness  of  the  demand  on  our  part,  that  if  the  Gospels 
are  not  genuine  and  authentic  as  we  receive  them,  they  should 
tell  us  whence  they  are.  As  an  answer  to  this  question,  various 
theories  have  been  propounded.  The  hypothesis  of  Strauss,  stated 
in  as  few  words  as  possible,  is  this : 


410  APPENDIX. 

1.  At  the  time  Jesus  lived  there  was  a  general  expectation  of 
a  Messiah.  The  prevailing  idea  concerning  Him  was,  that  He 
■would  be  a  temporal  prince,  and  deliver  the  Jews  from  their 
political  adversaries ;  and  that  for  this  purpose  he  would  work 
miracles,  such  as  their  heroes  were  said  to  have  done  in  past 
ages. 

2.  Accordingly,  Strauss  says,  it  happened  that  John  the  Baptist 
arose  at  this  time,  and  introduced  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  and  then 
disappeared  through  the  tower  of  Machserus  with  a  headless  body 
to  an  unlettered  and  unknown  grave,  though  with  an  immortal 
name.  Jesus,  being  baptized  by  John,  gradually  awoke  to  the 
consciousness  that  he  was  the  promised  Messiah ;  and  that  in 
time  He  gathered  around  Him  a  number  of  disciples,  who  admit- 
ted His  claims. 

3.  His  death,  however,  was  soon  brought  about  by  His  politi- 
cal enemies,  and  seemed  to  frustrate  all  the  hopes  of  His  disciples, 
until  they  conceived  the  idea  that  if  they  could  prove,  from  the 
expectations  of  the  old  Jewish  Church,  that  the  Messiah  was  to 
rise  from  the  dead,  and  succeed  in  spreading  a  report  that  Jesus 
had  actually  risen  from  the  dead,  then  they  supposed  their  ideas 
of  empire  or  success  in  some  way  might  still  be  realized.  This 
impulse  revived  and  completed  their  scheme. 

4.  And  accordingly,  in  process  of  time,  in  order  to  make  their 
pretensions  plausible,  they  invented  myths,  which  grew  apace  as 
they  were  repeated,  concerning  the  supernatural  conception, 
miracles,  death,  resurrection,  and  ascension  of  Jesus;  and  these 
embodied  myths  are  our  Gospels,  which  are  therefore  nothing 
more,  nothing  less,  than  the  mere  inventions  of  the  unlettered 
men  of  Galilee.  This  is  the  substance  of  the  celebrated  theory 
of  Strauss,  to  account  for  the  Christ  of  the  Gospels  and  the 
Christianity  of  our  day.  It  is  not,  however,  an  original  theory 
with  him.  His  main  purpose  in  constructing  his  argument  on 
this  theory  seems  to  have  been,  to  oppose  believers  in  miracles  on 
the  one  hand,  and  to  overthrow,  on  the  other,  the  natural  expo- 
sition system  of  Paulus,  by  denying  the  fact  that  any  such 
miracles  had  ever  been  wrought. 

^     On  mere  critical  and  philosophical  grounds,  we  regard  this 
theory  as  unsatisfactory. 


APPENDIX.  411 

1.  Flrst^  because  he  does  not  account  for  the  prevailing  ex- 
pectation of  a  Messiah  to  come,  of  which  he  speaks.  He  assumes 
that  there  was  such  a  general  expectation  prevailing  at  the  time 
when  Jesus  appeared,  but  gives  no  account  of  its  rise.  To  ex- 
plain the  origin  of  these  expectations  and  show  that  they  were 
erroneous  seems  to  us  the  first  thing  that  Strauss  should  have 
nttempted.  Why  does  he  not  tell  us  how  such  hopes  concerning  a 
Messiah  grew  out  of  the  Old  Testament  ?  If  they  are  not  legiti- 
mately in  the  Old  Testament,  how  did  they  arise  ?  Why  did  the 
Jews  believe  that  they  were  authorized  to  entertain  such  hopes 
at  the  time  when  Jesus  came,  if  the  writings  of  the  old  Jewish 
Church  did  not  contain  prophecies  that  were  calculated  to  raise 
such  expectations?  And  if  such  hopes  were  well  founded,  how 
came  they  into  the  Old  Testament  ?  and  if  such  expectations  are 
justly  founded  in  the  Old  Testament,  is  not  the  New  Testament 
their  actual  fulfilm>ent  ?  As  a  critic  and  an  honest  logician,  there 
is  no  way  for  Strauss  to  be  consistent  but  to  say  outright  that 
the  Apostles  invented  the  Gospels,  and  had  genius  enough  besides 
to  make  the  Jews  believe  that  their  oLl  Scriptures  foretold  a 
Messiah,  when  in  fact  there  was  no  such  prediction  in  them ;  and 
yet  to  invent  such  Gospels  as  our  Evangelists  have  given  us,  and 
secure  such  success  for  their  inventions  as  the  facts  of  Christianity 
have  been  and  now  are,  they  must  have  been  themselves  as  divine 
as  they  allege  their  great  Master  was.     [See  Discourse  II.] 

2.  It  is  equally  a  hegglng  of  the  question  for  him  to  assume 
that  the  Gospels  are  unhistoric,  because  miracles  are  impossible. 
For  a  writer  of  such  pretensions  as  Strauss  to  state  his  leading 
proposition  in  the  following  way  is  surprising :  Miracles  are  im- 
possible ;  therefore  the  Gospels  are  unhistoric.  That  is,  we  must 
believe  that  miracles  are  impossible,  and  tlierefore  all  histories  of 
miracles  are  myths ;  and  this  is  all  in  order  to  disprove  the  genuine- 
ness of  the  Gospels.  Now,  it  is  so  plain  and  easily  apprehended, 
that  there  is  a  palpable  distinction  between  the  genuineness  of  a 
book  and  its  authenticity,  that  I  need  not  dwell  on  it.  A  book  is 
authentic  when  it  is  true,  even  if  it  be  anonymous;  and  it  is 
genuine,  whethei;  true  or  not,  Avhen  it  is  written  by  the  author 
whose  name  it  bears.  The  Gospels  we  believe  are  genuine,  and 
they  are  authentic.  It  does  not  seem  to  have  occurred  to  Strauss, 
that  the  same  canon  of  criticism  with  which  he  starts  out  to  ex- 
amine the  Gospels,  if  applied  to  Livy  or  Tacitus,  or  any  ancient 


412  APPENDIX. 

author,  would  seriously  damage  them,  or  utterly  destroy  their 
authority.  It  is  well  known  that  Whately,  in  his  historic  doubts 
about  Napoleon,  and  several  other  authors  of  similar  works,  have 
exposed  the  sophistry  and  unreliable  character  of  this  species  of 
argumentation. 

3.  How  did  it  happen,  on  Strauss's  theory,  that  from  the 
miracle  of  Cana  in  Galilee,  everybody  who  knew  any  thing  of  the 
life  of  Jesus  regarded  Him  as  a  reformer,  a  public  teacher,  and 
that  He  really  did  work  miracles,  or  claimed  to  do  so,  in  proof  of 
His  authority  ?  It  is  not  a  sufficient  answer  to  this  point  to  say 
that  Jesus  did  not  always  work  miracles  whenever  His  enemies 
demanded  them,  nor  such  raiiacles  as  they  required.  It  is  quite 
enough  for  us  that  they  admitted  that  He  claimed  to  have  the 
power  to  work  miracles,  and  that  He  avowed  himself  that  He  did 
work  miracles  by  the  finger  of  God,  and  that  his  cotemporaries 
admitted  that  He  did  work  miracles.  The  fact  of  his  performing 
miracles  is  admitted  by  all  the  ancients  who  admitted  the  historic 
verity  of  His  life  at  all,  although  His  adversaries  explained  them 
in  such  a  way  as  to  take  from  Him  his  Divinity  and  MessiahsLip. 
Now,  unless  Jesus  was  a  deceiver,  a  lyiog  impostor,  He  must  have 
wrought  miracles,  for  He  says  He  did.  But  even  our  antagonist 
here  is  not  willing  to  bring  such  a  charge  as  this  against  His 
character. 

4.  We  do  not  see  how  it  can  be  believed  that  such  myths 
were  possible  as  Strauss  supposes.  What  is  a  myth,  and  how  was 
it  possible  for  the  world  to  allow  such  myths  to  prevail  as  true 
histories  ?  I  understand  a  myth  to  be  a  narrative,  something  like 
a  fable,  a  parable,  or  an  allegory,  differing  from  these  rather  in  its 
greater  simplicity  and  want  of  previous  intention,  more  than  in 
any  thing  else.  The  true  myth,  we  are  told,  is  improvised^  and  is 
without  deliberation  or  "conscious  invention."  Thus  it  is  alleged 
arose  Greek  Mythology.  Yilmar  and  Grote  have  written  largely 
and  exceedingly  well  on  the  origin  of  myths,  and  the  result  of 
what  they  have  written  is,  that  such  myths  as  our  Gospels,  if  they 
are  myths,  could  not  have  arisen  in  the  age  of  Augustus.  It  was 
pre-eminently  an  age  of  philosophical  inquiry,  an  age  of  poets, 
orators,  philosophers — the  investigating  age  of  Greek  and  Roman 
culture.  It  was  the  age  of  Josephus,  Tacitus,  Cicero,  and  Seneca, 
(/crtainly  there  was  learning  enough,  critical  acumen  enough,  and 


APPENDIX.  418 

aversion  enough  to'  the  doctrines  of  the  Crucified,  to  have  then 
exposed  the  deceit  and  fraud  of  myths  that  seriously  claimed  to 
be  true  histories,  and  to  found  on  the  alleged  facts  of  these  his- 
tories a  new  religion,  and  a  system  of  morals  superior  to  any  other 
then  known.  It  certainly  was  not  an  era  favorable  to  the  rise  of 
myths.  Where  are  any  other  such  myths  that  can  be  alleged  as  cha- 
racteristic of  the  Gospel  times,  or  as  belonging  to  any  similar  age  ? 
The  late  Dr.  Arnold,  of  Rugby,  has  said  somewhere,  it  is  ridicu- 
lous and  wholly  inconsistent,  "  the  idea  of  men  writing  mythic 
histories  between  the  time  of  Livy  and  Tacitus,  and  of  St.  Paul 
mistaking  such  myths  for  realities."  All  the  myths  and  legends 
with  which  we  are  acquainted  have  certainly  grown  out  of  a  very 
different  state  of  society  from  that  which  we  find  in  the  Roman 
empire  under  the  laws. and  arms  that  governed  the  world  when 
and  where  Christianity  had  its  birth.  Nor  does  the  fact,  that 
many  apocryphal  Gospels  w^ere  multiplied  in  the  following  ages, 
make  at  all  against  our  position.  For  it  can  be  shown  that  they 
arose  in  ages  subsequent  to  the  appearance  of  the  Gospels  of  our 
Evangelists,  and  that  they  were  generally,  if  not  always,  the  off- 
spring of  pious  frauds.  They  were  intended  to  favor  sects  and 
parties  who  held  doctrines  which  were  condemned  by  the  majority 
of  believers. 

We  must  press  our  question,  then.  What  had  become  of  the 
whole  Jewish  people  and  of  all  their  sacred  writings,  that  these 
myths  of  the  unlearned  fishermen  of  Galilee  were  not  exposed 
and  utterly  put  to  silence  ?  How  is  it  possible  that  the  whole 
world  could  have  been  prevailed  upon  to  admit  myths  as  historic 
verities,  so  soon  after  the  time  when  it  was  alleged  these  events, 
and  at  the  very  place  where  such  events  as  the  miracles  of  the 
life  and  resurrection  of  Jesus,  had  taken  place  ?  Is  it  possible  to 
believe  that  such  events  as  the  crucifixion  and  resurrection  of 
Jesus  could  have  been  admitted  as  true  by  anybody,  at  the  time 
the  Apostles  alleged  these  events  as  facts,  in  proof  that  Jesus  was 
the  Messiah,  in  their  public  discourses,  and  at  the  time  when  our 
Gospels  were  written  if  everybody  knew  that  in  fact  they  were 
mere  myths  ?  Certainly  such  myths  could  not  have  been  promul- 
gated till  all  the  Apostles  and  all  other  eye-witnesses  of  the  life 
of  Jesus  were  dead.  But  we  know  and  can  prove,  according  to 
Tischendorf  and  a  host  of  other  very  learned  and  respectable  wri- 
ter?, that  our  Gospels  date  back  to  the  age  which  we  claim  for  the 


414  APPENDIX. 

Apostles  themselves.  Nor  can  it  be  unfair  here  to  say,  that 
Renan  admits  the  early  date  of  the  evangelical  histories,  as  early 
at  least  as  the  second  half  of  the  first  century — that  is,  to  about 
the  times  of  the  authors  to  whom  they  are  attributed.  Vie  de 
Jesus^  pp.  xiv.,  xxxvii.  Renan's  admissions  in  regard  to  the 
Gospels,  especially  that  of  St.  John,  are  quite  sufficient  for  the  utter 
refutation  of  all  Strauss  has  said  against  them.  If  what  Renan 
says  of  John's  Gospel  is  true,  it  destroys  forever  the  mythical 
theory  of  Strauss.  No  wonder,  therefore,  that  Renan  abandoned 
myths  for  legends,  although  we  do  not  think  he  has  materially 
benefited  his  cause  by  so  doing. 

We  can  prove,  then,  so  early  a  date  to  the  Gospel  narratives 
that  sufficient  time  had  not  elapsed  from  the  death  of  Christ  to 
have  allowed  for  the  invention  and  promulgation  of  such  mythical 
tales  as  Strauss  alleges,  nor  of  such  legends  as  Renan  has  invented. 
And  if  the  growing  and  reception  of  such  myths  as  true  histoiies 
during  the  lifetime  of  the  Apostles  is  inconceivable,  it  is  equally 
so  at  any  subsequent  period  in  the  face  of  the  Christian  Church, 
and  of  an  intelligent,  literary  heathen  empire,  such  as  that  of 
Rome,  in  the  bosom  of  which  Christianity  arose.  And  here  it  is 
necessary  to  remember,  that  it  has  always  been  fundamental  with 
the  Christian  Church  to  believe  in  the  literal  truth  of  the  facts 
narrated  in  the  Gospels,  at  least  concerning  the  supernatural  con- 
ception, miracles,  and  resurrection  of  Jesus.  And  which  now,  in 
this  nineteenth  century,  requires  the  most  faith;  namely,  to  believe 
in  Jesus  Christ  according  to  the  Apostles'  Creed,  as  the  Christ  of 
the  Gospels  and  the  author  of  the  Christianity  of  history,  or  to 
believe  that  the  man  Jesus  of  Nazareth  has  been  made  the  Christ 
of  history  by  the  mere  fancy  and  enthusiasm  of  his  followers,  who 
ascribed  to  Him  attributes  and  powers  he  never  had,  nor  claimed 
to  have — that  it  was  only  after  the  popular  mind  had  become 
excited  as  to  the  exploits  of  some  great  personage  who  was 
expected  to  come,  that  miracles  and  supernatural  events  were 
ever  thought  of  in  connection  with  the  name  of  Jesus  ? 

Strauss's  theory  requires — 

1.  To  deny,  at  the  beginning  of  the  argument,  the  genuine- 
ness of  the  Gospel  histories — which  is  a  main  question  in  the 
argument.     All  the  proof,  therefore,  historical  and  theological, 


APPENDIX.  415 

which  are  neither  few  nor  light  on  the  side  of  the  genuineness  of 
the  Gospels,  are  against  Strauss. 

2.  According  to  Strauss,  we  must  believe  that  Jesus  himself 
and  his  disciples  believed  as  true  what  He  and  they  knew  to  be 
false,  namely,  that  he  wrought  mirxicles,  when  he  did  not  do  so ; 
nor  did  He  even  claim  to  have  ever  done  so.  How,  then,  could 
such  a  belief  ever  have  had  a  beginning?  If  the  Hebrew 
prophecies  did  not  properly  create  such  expectations  as  it  was 
alleged  were  realized  in  Jesus  when  He  was  set  forth  as  the 
Messiah,  how  did  these  expectations  arise  ?  And  if  Jesus  did 
not  actually  meet  such  expectations  during  his  life,  how  could  He 
himself  ever  have  believed  that  He  was  the  Messiah  ?  and  how 
could  his  disciples  have  deceived  themselves  so  as  to  impose  upon 
the  world  as  true  history  what  they  and  everybody  knew  to  be 
mere  myths  ? 

3.  To  answer  this,  Strauss  requires  us  to  believe,  again,  that 
there  was  an  original  infant  Christian  Church  outside  of  the 
apostolical  society,  that  agreed  on  propagating  these  myths  as 
true  histories — a  body  of  disciples  able  and  willing  to  be  de- 
ceived, to  deceive  themselves  knowingly,  without  the  slightest 
selfish  motive  that  can  be  discovered,  and  willing  to  deceive  the 
world,  although  in  their  attempts  to  do  so  they  were  required  to 
endure  all  manner  of  persecution,  even  unto  death;  and  yet  they 
succeeded.  But  all  history  is  to  be  set  aside  if  we  receive  such  a 
view  as  this.  This  is,  indeed,  faith  stronger  than  "  Great  Heart's." 
Who  were  these  disciples?  Who  founded  this  non-apostolic 
society  ?  Whence  came  this  body  of  Christians,  outside  alto- 
gether of  apostolic  labors  ?  And  if  such  a  body  of  Christians 
gave  utterance  to  these  myths,  where  were  the  Apostles  that  they 
did  not  deny  them  ?  And  who  was  it  that  preached  these  myths 
to  the  Gentiles,  and  how  did  it  come  to  pass  that  the  preaching 
of  such  myths  turned  the  world  upside  down,  and  converted 
Athens,  Corinth,  and  Rome,  and  made  the  Cross  prevail  on 
"  mighty  Csesar's  "  throne  ? 

4.  Again :  according  to  Strauss  (for  his  disbelief  makes  large  de- 
mands on  our  faith),  we  must  believe  that  the  resurrection  of  Christ 
is  a  pure  fiction,  and  yet,  at  the  same  time,  that  the  Apostles  did  all 
sincerely  believe  that  He  had  risen  from  the  dead.     On  no  other 


41G  APPENDIX. 

hypothesis  can  their  steadfast  adherence  to  the  cause  of  Christ  be 
defended  or  explained.  But  if  Jesus  did  arise  from  the  dead,  as 
they  believed  he  did,  then  He  is  all  we  believe  Him  to  be.  And 
we  must  remember  that  they  adhered  to  the  positive  declaration 
that  they  knew  He  had  risen  from  the  dend,  for  they  saw  Him 
dead  and  buried,  and  then  saw  Him  alive,  and  for  many  days, 
until  He  ascended  into  heaven,  through  poverty  and  persecution 
unto  death  ;  and  most  of  them  died  as  martyrs,  not  for  a  mere 
opinion,  but  for  believing  this  as  a  fact.     [See  Discourse  XL] 

5.  If,  then,  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  is  an  historical  fact,  and 
if  the  circumstances  and  sayings  of  His  life  are  historical,  why  is 
the  mythical  theory  necessary  at  all  ?  And  if  they  are  not  histo- 
rical, is  there  any  thing  that  can  be  received  as  historical  truth  ? 
Is  there  any  history  that  has  such  a  monument  for  its  verity  as 
Christianity  to-day  is  for  the  truth  of  the  Gospel  ?  And  if  there 
is  any  thing,  one  single  supernatural  event,  blended  with  the 
natural  in  the  history  of  religion,  why  not  enough  of  the  super- 
natural to  produce  miracles,  and  to  give  us  the  realities  of  the 
Gospels  ?  If  there  is  any  thing  supernatural  in  the  history  of  our 
universe,  even  the  least  thing,  we  have  all  we  need  to  be  consist- 
ent in  believing  in  the  supernatural  origin  of  Christianity.  I  do 
not  see  how  it  is  possible  to  receive  the  Gospels  as  mythical  tales, 
or  legendary  narratives  having  a  foundation  in  facts,  and  not 
acknowledge  that  there  are  many  things  that  are  perfectly  natural 
bound  up  with  them,  and  as  such  true ;  and  if  so,  why  is  not  the 
supernatural  part  of  the  Gospel  history  true  also? 

6.  This  mythical  theory  does  not  account  for  the  supernatural 
character  of  our  Lord.  If  this  theory  is  correct,  the  character, 
temper,  and  tone,  and  motives,  and  conduct,  of  the  first  believers 
in  Christianity  are  anomalous.  There  is  no  possible  common 
sense  or  reasonable  way  of  explaining  their  character  that  is  con- 
sistent with  this  mythical  theory.  And,  moreover,  if  this  theory 
is  correct,  then  the  character  of  our  Lord  himself  is  an  original 
conception,  coming  out  of  the  unaided  brain  and  souls  of  His 
Galilean  followers  ;  and  so  also  is  the  description  of  it  an  original 
description,  out  of  the  mere  human  mind  of  unlearned  fishermen, 
from  the  little  sea  of  Tiberias.  And  if  this  is  so,  how  is  it  that 
such  a  conception,  and  such  a  description,  have  never  been  pro- 
duced or  found  anywhere  else  ?     If  the  Christ  of  the  Gospels  is 


APPENDIX.  417 

the  mere  creation  of  His  disciples,  then  were  they  themselves  as 
great  as  they  have  made  tlieir  Lord  to  he.  Without  the  Christ 
of  the  Gospels,  we  have  no  adequate  cause  for  the  Christianity 
of  these  eighteen  hundred  yenrs.  As  well,  to  borrow  an  illustra- 
tion from  another,  say  that  "the  Amazon,  rolling  its  broad  stream 
for  thousands  of  miles,  and  spreading  fertility  along  its  banks,  is 
all  owing  to  a  shower  of  rain  one  spring  morning,"  as  to  ascribe 
Christianity  to  any  mere  human  origin. 

In  a  word,  Strauss  requires  us  to  ignore  history,  reject  the 
faith  of  Christendom,  and  mutilate  the  faculties  of  the  human  soul, 
and  mock  at  the  cravings  of  the  human  heart  and  conscience. 
For  if  there  is  nothing  supernatural  in  our  holy  faith,  then  we 
must  go  to  naturalism,  transcendentalism,  or  pantheism  for  com- 
fort.    But  alas  !  it  is  not  there. 

We  have  already  alluded  to  Strauss's  new  Life  of  Jesus,  which 
while  it  is  a  recast,  is  also  a  modification  of  his  previous  views 
in  one  direction,  and  a  stronger  presentation  of  others  in  another 
direction.  It  is  a  newly  written  and  entirely  a  different  book 
from  his  old  work,  and,  on  the  whole,  perhaps  a  more  dangerous 
one.  It  is  a  most  laborious  and  ingenious  attempt  to  incorporate 
the  latest  results  of  the  theological  criticism  of  Germany  in  such 
a  way  as  to  set  them  before  his  countrymen  at  large.  He  labors 
to  popularize  his  views,  so  as  to  get  them  into  the  minds  of  the 
masses.  He  acknowledges  the  Tiibingen  school,  under  the  lead- 
ership of  Dr.  F.  C.  Bauer,  Zellei-,  and  Hilgenfeld,  and  though  not 
agreeing  with  all  their  views,  they  are  all  against  the  Christ  of 
our  Creed.  The  Westminster  Hevieio  pronounces  Strauss's  last 
work  "  the  most  complete  and  satisfactory  solution  of  the  great 
religious  problems  with  which  it  grapples  that  has  ever  been  pro- 
duced." 

It  was  doubtless  the  influence  of  Tubingen  that  led  Strauss  to 
put  forth  a  restatement  of  his  theory.  But  we  can  hardly  escape 
from  the  feeling,  as  we  see  new  terms,  that  they  are  designed  in 
part  to  coMceal  his  chnnge  of  basa.  Comparatively,  the  repairing 
of  the  defects  of  the  old  work  by  the  new  one  is  of  little  conse- 
quence. For  it  is  difficult  for  us  to  see  how  wilfully  invented 
narratives  are  myths.  A  mere  change  of  ground,  therefore,  when 
the  old  animus  remains,  is  of  consequence  only  as  far  as  it  gives  us 
2t 


418  APPENDIX. 

the  advantage  of  position,  by  exposing  his  own  vacillation  and 
weakness. 

The  success  of  this  new  '*  Life  of  Jesus,"  by  Strauss,  has  not 
come  up,  we  think,  to  public  expectation.  Various  reasons  are 
assigned  for  this  ;  such  as, 

1 .  It  has  not  the  novelty  of  his  first  work. 

2.  It  is  alleged  that  the  public  mind  of  Germany  is  fully  inoc- 
ulated with  the  virus  of  his  first  work,  and  cannot  be  impressed 
with  the  same  virus  from  his  second.  The  atmosphere  is  so 
charged,  that  it  cannot  contain  any  more  in  solution.  Therefore 
the  new  work  is  not  sold  and  circulated  as  was  the  first. 

3.  The  continental  mind  was  somewhat  preoccupied  with 
Renan.  There  was  not  room  for  even  two  such  Richmonds  in 
the  field. 

4.  Perhaps  a  greater  reason  than  all  these  is,  that  the  work 
itself  contains  in  its  own  bosom  so  many  contradictions  that  public 
confidence  in  it  is  destroyed.  And  this  is  the  more  damnging, 
because  Strauss  is  not  in  harmony  with  either  Strasbourg,  Tiibin- 
gen,  or  Renan.  And  when  "  doctors  disagree,  disciples  then  are 
free."     And, 

5.  We  may  add,  that  it  is  a  great  coming  clown  for  "  the  head 
and  front "  of  critical  learning  in  Europe,  as  directed  to  the  histo- 
rical evidences  of  our  Gospels,  to  appeal  from  the  learned  to  the 
popular  tribune  of  unbelief  among  the  uneducated  classes.  It 
strikes  us  as  a  great  mark  of  weakness  for  a  writer  of  his  preten- 
sions, and  on  such  a  subject,  to  make  the  unlettered  the  judge  of 
historical  evidences.  He  seeks  to  put  forth  his  theoiy.  Then  he 
offers  a  kind  of  history  of  Jesus  purged  from  legend  and  fable, 
and  then  a  classified  list  of  myths  out  of  which  the  legend  and 
history  are  to  be  framed.  His  via  dolorosa  is  to  get  rid  of  myths 
by  growing  legends.  Perhaps,  after  all,  the  most  valuable  thing 
about  Strauss's  new  life  of  Jesus  is  that  it  serves  as  a  kind  of 
barometer,  giving  us  the  levity  or  weight  of  sentiment  among  the 
refined  and  educated,  and  yet  unbelieving  circles  of  Germany,  in 
regard  to  the  life,  miracles,  and  teachings  of  Christ. 

The  main  difference  between  Strauss  and  Renan,  in  the  line  of 
my  present  argument,  is,  that  Renan  uses  the  term  legend  where 


APPENDIX.  419 

Strauss  employs  myth.  He  makes  the  Gospels  legendary  narra- 
tives instead  of  mythical  tales.  He  says  these  legendary  narra- 
tives emanated  chiefly  from  the  Apostles  themselves,  and  were 
largely  founded  on  facts.  Thus  he  admits  an  important  point  for 
us  as  against  Strauss,  namely,  the  early  date  of  the  Gospels,  and 
historic  verities  for  a  heginning.  On  both  of  these  points  Renan 
is  also  at  direct  issue  with  Tubingen.  But  as  Renan  proceeds 
with  his  eloquent  romancing,  he  makes  the  Evangelists  no  more 
than  deceived  honest  chroniclers  of  legends,  just  like  the  chron- 
iclers of  the  legends  of  the  saints  of  the  mediaeval  ages.  He  says 
it  was  the  blind  enthusiasm  of  His  followers  that  made  Jesus 
himself  first  think  of  claiming  to  be  the  Messiah,  and  that,  making 
the.  claim  at  first  to  please  them,  He  gradually  fell  into  the  belief 
that  He  was  what  they  said  He  was,  and  could  do  what  they 
attributed  to  him;  and  that  his  followers  came  honestly  to  believe 
at  last  that  He  was  the  Messiah,  and  did  really  work  miracles ; 
but  that,  in  fact,  he  was  only  a  superior  benevolent,  good  kind 
of  man.  And  thus  the  Gospels  are,  at  best,  only  successful  pious 
frauds,  "  the  spawn  of  the  terrible  delusion,  that  one  may  lie  for 
God." 

Finally^  it  is  plain,  the  truthfulness,  the  honesty,  the  moral 
excellence  of  Jesus  must  stand  or  fall  with  his  supernatural 
claims.  He  could  not  be  deceived.  His  testimony,  therefore,  con- 
cerning himself  must  be  believed,  unless  he  is  a  deceiver,  an 
impostor.  But  such  excellence  of  character  as  is  universally 
admitted  to  have  belonged  to  him,  could  not  exist  in  an  impostor. 
It  is  impossible  for  Him,  who  is  the  Truth  itself,  and  who  lived 
and  died  for  the  Truth,  to  have  put  forth  claims  to  be  what  He 
knew  He  was  not.  He  was  born  and  died  to  bear  witness  unto 
the  truth.  He  said  He  was  the  Son  of  God,  the  promised  Mes- 
siah, and  that  whosoever  believeth  in  Him  should  have  everlastiqg 
life,  and  that  his  body  should  be  raised  up  at  the  last  day.  It  is 
credible,  it  is  the  highest  reason,  to  believe  just  what  He  taught, 
and  to  believe  it  on  his  own  authority. 

Clearly,  the  result  of  Renau's  adniissions  and  argument  is,  that 
we  must  believe  in  the  miracles  of  Jesus  and  his  x\postk's,  or 
charge  Christ  and  his  Apostles  with  wilful  and  malicious  fraud. 
"  We  have  either  truth  or  gross  cheating.  Such  is  the  real  alter- 
native, and  Renan  has  thus  unintentionally  done  a  service  to  the 


420  APPENDIX. 

Christian  Church,  by  impaling  unbelief   upon  this  dilemma." — 
Prof.  Fisher. 

The  foundation  of  the  celebrated  Tubingen  school,  which  in 
some  respects  is  the  most  formid  ible  attack  of  our  day  upon 
Christianity,  is  an  avowed  kind  of  Pantheism.  It  is  a  denial  not 
only  of  the  miracles  of  the  New  Testament,  but  of  every  thing 
supernatural.  It  allows  no  God  but  natural  causes,  and  hence  a 
miracle  is  an  absurdity  !  It  is  only  as  pantheists,  which  is  only 
another  name  for  atheists,  that  Strauss,  Bauer,  and  Renan  can 
consistently  deny  the  possibility  of  miracles.  The  Chris tless 
Theism  of  Theodore  Parker  and  of  Miss  Cobbe  requires  panthe- 
ism as  its  last  stopping-place.  Having,  however,  already  ex- 
hausted my  space  for  this  Appendix,  I  must  leave  the  pantheism 
of  Tiibingen  by  recommending  Prof.  Fisher's  "  Supernatural 
Origin  of  Christianity,"  and  Guizot's  last  volume,  on  the  "  Actual 
State  of  Christianity  " — a  volume  which,  as  a  whole,  is  far  from 
being  satisfactory,  but  the  last  Meditations  on  modern  specula- 
tions we  think  worthy  of  attention. 

It  were  easy  to  show  that  we  cannot  rely  upon  negative  criti- 
cism for  a  guide  to  truth,  because  it  is  not  agreed  among  its 
schools  what  we  are  to  believe.  Their  contradictions  are  endless. 
They  begin  their  arguments  by  begging  the  main  question  ;  and 
besides,  they  mutilate  our  faculties  and  destroy  the  hope  of  the 
human  heart.  '^Le  coeur,"  as  Pascal  says,  "a  des  raisons  que  la 
raison  ne  connait  point."  "  IVie  heart  has  reasons  that  the  reason, 
knows  not  at  alV  , 

Finally,  having  briefly  reviewed  the  Cliristology  of  the  ages 
of  the  Church  before  the  Council  of  Nicsea,  and  taken  a  rapid 
look  at  the  appearance  of  the  speculations  of  the  Modern  Schools 
of  disbelieving  criticism,  it  seems  proper  to  drop  a  few  words  of 
exhortation,  designed  especially  for  theological  students  and 
young  ministers  of  the  Gospel. 

You  may  remember  Fuller's  advice  about  dividing  a  text  or  a 
subject :  What  is  it  f  Why  is  it^  and  ichat  then  f  The  Athe- 
nians made  an  application  of  Demosthenes'  what  then^  by  rising 
and  rushing  out  with  the  cry,  "Let  us  fight  Philip." 

I.  Will  you  allow  me  to  say,  we  must  learn  to  take  a  world- 
wide view  of  men  and  things,  and  escape  from  local,  sectional. 


APPENDIX.  421 

and  fanatical  prejudices  ?  We  must  acknowledge  the  facts  of 
science  and  history  as  they  are  brought  to  light.  We  must  meet 
the  cLiims  of  science  and  literature  with  a  full  measure  of  justice 
as  to  what  they  really  are  and  have  done.  We  have  only  to  know 
the  certainty  of  what  they  teach,  and  admit  what  are  surely 
known  as  facts  ;  and  if  we  have  not  light  from  the  Bible  to  explain 
them,  we  must  wait  for  it.  Our  capacities  are  limited.  All 
things  are  not  for  one  moment.  It  has  been  beautifully  said, 
God  waited  thousands  of  years  for  Newton  and  Laplace  to  teach 
us  how  to  read  his  laws  of  Nature,  and  we  read  them  even  now 
with  much  stammering.  We  must  wait,  but  we  wait  with  per- 
fect assurance  that  there  is  no  contradiction  between  God*s  works 
and  laws,  in  Creation  and  Revelation. 

II.  We  must  strive  to  acquire  the  ability  to  look  with  calm- 
ness and  with  an  unblenching  face  on  all  the  gathering  hosts  that 
appear  against  us.  We  must  not  be  dismayed  by  their  numbers, 
nor  by  the  weight  of  their  armor,  nor  by  the  noise  of  their  shout- 
ings. We  must  be  willing  to  know  their  strength,  conscious  that 
He  who  is  with  us  is  more  and  mightier  than  they  that  are 
against  us.  The  more  intense  the  darkness,  the  brighter  is  thb 
light  that  is  ahead.  The  darkness  of  the  night  serves  to  bring 
out  the  stars.  The  late  Hugh  Miller,  a  great  man,  but  in  some 
respects  a  dangerous  writer,  especially  for  young  men,  used  to 
give  a  somewhat  humorous  description  of  the  strategetical 
methods  of  the  crab  and  lobster.  His  description  is  in  the 
following  style.  The  crab  is  always  for  war.  It  flares  up  the 
moment  of  attack,  goes  off  in  a  towering  passion,  and  without 
discrimination  grips  at  every  thing  within  reach,  and  holds  on  to 
whatever  it  catches  hold  of,  although  it  is  thereby  dragged  out 
of  its  own  hold  to  destruction.  So  there  are  some  Christian 
writers  and  speakers,  that  are  honest  and  earnest  enough,  but 
like  the  crab,  they  are  not  wise.  Impetuosity  is  their  besetting 
infirmity.  But  the  lobster  adopts  an  entirely  different  method  of 
defence.  If  a  limb  is  seized  he  throws  it  off — saying,  "  Take  it, 
take  it ;  only  spare  my  life."  But  the  lobster  is  apt  to  overdo  his 
discretion.  In  a  panic  he  yields  limb  after  limb  ;  as  for  instance, 
if  you  fire  a  musket  over  him,  he  throws  off  limb  after  limb, 
of  which  afterwards  he  finds  he  has  great  need,  both  as  weapons 
of  defence,  and  means  of  locomotion  and  enjoyment.     Now  I 


423  APPENDIX. 

fancy  we  have  all  seen  some  of  these  panic  lobsters.  If  only- 
French  savans  or  German  rationalists  say  tlie  chronology  of 
Moses  is  all  wrong  ;  or  the  "Vestiges  of  Creation,"  or  some  huge 
volume  from  Baden  Powell  or  Darwin  appear,  telling  us  the 
Bible  is  all  wrong  as  to  the  creation  ;  or  of  Huxley,  Roca,  or  Lyell, 
telling  us  there  were  human  races  long  before  Adam,  or  that 
"  the  grand  old  gardener  and  his  wife,"  as  the  poet  laureate  calls 
Adam  and  Eve,  are  a  male  and  female  gorilla  a  little  more  decently 
moulded ;  or  when  a  Colenso,  a  Strauss,  or  a  Renan  plunges  us  all 
into  fable-land,  to  flounder  among  myths  or  be  smothered  with 
legends,  then,  like  the  lobster,  they  yield  limb  by  limb  until  there 
is  nothing  left  but  an  awkward  carcass,  which  the  "  pismires  " 
may  crawl  out  of  the  sand  and  devour.  We  should  of  course 
yield  what  is  false,  but  maintain  what  is  true.  We  must  guard 
against  yielding  the  key  of  our  position  out  of  courtesy,  or  by 
way  of  showing  our  confidence  in  our  strength. 

But  as  we  hear  the  trumpet  waxing  louder  and  louder,  calling 
our  enemies  to  the  assault  upon  our  strong  fortress,  we  are  not  to 
quake  with  fear.  Bold  and  defiant  as  they  form  into  darkening 
masses  around  us,  and  even  after  some  of  our  outposts  are  bat- 
tered down,  and  some  of  our  pickets  driven  in,  still  are  we  with- 
out fear.  For  our  enemies  have  yet  to  learn  that  Zion's  walls  are 
impregnable.  It  is  only  false  or  badly  constructed,  or  unwisely 
or  timidly  defended  outposts  that  have  been  shaken.  Let  all  hell 
move  and  come  with  all  its  earthly  auxiliaries  against  the  Church 
of  King  Immanuel,  and  its  gates  will  remain  unshaken.  The 
blasphemous  boasting  of  the  Syrian  general  did  not  take  Jeru- 
salem. The  remnants  of  many  a  shouting  host  have  reeled  back 
shattered  over  the  bodies  of  their  comrades. 

And  here  seems  to  us  a  proper  place  to  say  that  just  now 
there  is  a  tendency  to  make  altogether  too  much  out  of  the 
"Religions  before  Christ,"  and  the  heaven-directed  education 
of  the  world  for  His  coming;  almost,  if  not  altogether  as  divine 
and  as  miraculous  a  mission  being  assigned  to  Greece  and  Rome; 
as  to  Moses  and  Israel  This  is  an  argument  as  old  as  the  first 
centuries,  and  it  is  a  good  one,  and  is  wielded  with  vigor  by 
De  Pressense^  and  put  forth  by  Mr.  Gladstone  in  his  farewell 
literary  address  in  Edinburgh,  and  also  urged  with  overwhelming 
eloquence  by  Strauss,  and  many  others  of  both  the  positive  and 


APPENDIX.  423 

negative  schools  of  criticism.  And  it  is  not  my  purpose  to  reject 
this  argument,  but  only  to  guard  against  making  too  much  of  it. 
It  has  great  fascination  for  the  young  mind.  It  is  true,  Christ 
did  come  in  the  fulness  of  time.  The  world  was  prepared  for  his 
coming.  The  Divine  plan  was  all  pre-arranged.  But  it  is  not 
true  that  this  preparation  does,  in  the  slightest  degree,  diminish 
the  Divinity  of  Christ,  or  account  for  the  origin  of  our  holy 
faith  outside  of  the  Gospel.  "  The  strangely  inflammable  state 
of  the  materials  "  which  took  fire  at  the  Incarnation,  to  borrow 
a  phrase  from  the  EUnhurgh  Review^  does  not  in  any  way  help 
the  negative  school  of  critics.  At  best,  it  only  throws  the  Divinity 
of  Christianity  a  little  farther  back,  where  indeed  it  belongs,  for 
Christ's  kingdom  is  from  before  the  beginning  of  the  world. 
Whatever  the  religions  before  Christ  may  have  been,  or  whatever 
preparations  were  made  for  the  Incarnation,  they  were  a  part  of  the 
Divine  plan  for  manifesting  God  in  the  flesh. 

III.  We  must  not  allow  our  adversaries  to  fight  men  of  straw. 
We  must  not  allow  the  abuses  of  our  holy  religion  to  be  substi- 
tuted for  the  religion  itself  True  Christianity  is  something  very 
different  from  mere  theological  dogmas,  mysticism,  or  formalism. 
Political  hierarchies,  with  a  dogmatic,  narrow,  and  cruel  super- 
stition substituted  for  the  Gospel,  have  done  more  harm  to  true 
religion  than  all  the  infidels  that  have  ever  lived.  We  must  not 
allow  our  antagonists  to  make  Scripture  for  us,  and  then  hold  us 
responsible  for  it;  nor  allow  them  to  bVing  out  of  the  Bible 
what  God  never  put  into  it ;  nor  allow  them  to  require  the  Bible 
to  be  or  to  do  what  its  Authoi-  never  designed  it  to  be  or  to  do. 
The  direct  and  absolute  purpose  of  Divine  Revelation  is  to 
set  forth  the  way  of  salvation  for  sinners  of  Adam's  race  by  faith 
in  Jesus  Christ. 

IV.  A  first  and  main  position  which  we  must  boldly  take  in 
t}iis  controversy  is,  that  the  facts  of  Christianity  are  intact.  It  is 
a  positive  religion,  with  its  history  and  its  rites,  and  after  all  that 
has  been  said  and  done,  its  main  facts  have  never  been  overturned. 
Dean  Alford,  himself  a  critic  and  Christian  scholar,  has  just  said 
that  all  the  critical  attacks  made  upon  the  verity  of  the  Gospels 
have  failed.  Not  one  of  the  foundations  of  our  Faith  has  been 
shaken.  The  essential  fact  is  the  Person  of  Christ.  And,  histori- 
cally, it  remains,  after  all  that  has  been  done,  undeniable.     Our 


424  APPENDIX. 

schools  of  negative  criticism  have  utterly  failed  to  construct  any 
theory  that  accounts  for  Christianity.  Strauss  and  Renan  make 
themselves  wings  out  of  myths  and  legends  merely  to  fly  over  the 
main  questions.  We  must  insist  upon  it,  the  main  facts  of  Chris- 
tianity are  to  be  received  as  facts,  unless  disproved  historically 
upon  evidence  that  is  more  credible  than  our  Gospels.  We  must 
insist  upon  facts  being  received,  not  as  opinions,  or  dogmas,  or 
myths,  but  just  as  they  really  are — facts.  Our  holy  religion 
acknowledges  faith  in  the  heart  as  a  product  of  enlightenment  by 
the  Spirit  of  God,  but  it  rests  fundamentally  on  historical  facts, 
and  boldly  appeals  to  the  broadest  stratum  of  human  intelligence, 
to  common  sense,  to  the  shrewdness  of  man's  unsophisticated 
sense,  and  to  his  whole  inner  life,  for  evidences  of  its  truth.  Re- 
vealed religion  neither  ignores  nor  opposes  right  reason.  True 
faith  and  true  reason  are  both  from  God. 

It  is  historically  demonstrated  that  every  and  all  systems  of 
faith  and  morals  that  come  short  of  a  positive  and  definite  belief 
in  God,  and  of  our  personal  responsibility  to  Him,  will  fail  to 
control  the  masses  of  mankind.  The  old  French  Revolution  is  an 
illuminated  picture  of  wild  horses  spurning  the  silken  harnessings 
of  philosophical  morality;  or  shall  I  rather  say,  of  furies  gorging 
on  blood,  in  the  broad  light  of  the  highest  philosophical  refine- 
ment, in  the  heart  of  the  most  intelligent  and  polished  nation  of 
the  world  ?  France,  4uring  the  reign  of  Terror,  was  the  focus 
of  all  the  light  that  science  and  art  could  create.  It  is  amazing 
that  the  historian  of  the  French  Revolution  and  of  the  Life  of 
Oliver  Cromwell  has  not  felt  the  force  of  this  illustration.  And 
strange  that  Goethe  was  ignorant  of  it,  and  Emerson  sees  it  not. 
Has  any  thing,  then,  been  gained  by  the  essayists  and  social 
reformers  and  critics  who  take  away  our  Lord  ?  Are  they  able  to 
point  to  moral  results  like  those  accomplished  by  the  Gospel  ? 
Have  they  ever  ofiered  such  ethics  as  Christianity  teaches,  or  a 
system  of  Faith  in  any  way  to  be  compared  with  the  Creed  of 
the  Apostles?  After  all  these  critics  have  destroyed,  and  all 
these  reformers  and  all  these  schools  of  the  Gospel  of  culture  have 
done,  is  there  a  father  or  a  mother  in  all  Christendom  who  would 
not  prefer  their  children  should  learn  morals  from  the  New  Tes- 
tament rather  than  from  them,  and  die  in  the  faith  of  the  Christ  of 
the  Apostles  than  in  any  other  ? 


APPENDIX.  425 

V.  Allow  mo  to  say,  that  we  should  guard  against  underrating 
the  strength  of  our  antago7iists.  It  is  well,  it  is  right  for 
young  men,  as  they  gird  on  their  armor  to  go  forth  into  the 
conflict,  to  feel  that  they  are  strong,  and  that  their  heart  is  equal 
for  the  fight.  Encourage  this  faith ;  but  at  the  same  time  be 
wary.  Aftyr  more  than  twenty  years'  constant  conflict  with  our 
opponents,  and  that  not  always  with  equal  armor,  skill,  or  strength, 
yet  always,  I  trust,  with  the  victory,  through  the  grace  of  the 
God  of  Jacob,  I  do  earnestly  beseech  my  young  brethren  not  to 
despise  the'  enemies'  forces.  The  opponents  of  our  holy  Faith 
have  learning — some  of  them  true,  profound,  prodigious,  and 
varied  learning,  as  well  as  talents,  genius,  industry,  and  devoted- 
ness  to  their  work.  It  is  amazing  to  see  the  vastness  of  the 
critical  and  historical  studies  and  metaphysical  theories,  and  the 
amount  of  natural  science,  that  are  brought  in  our  day  into  the 
question  of  the  Truth  of  our  Gospels,  or  of  the  supernatural 
origin  of  Christianity. 

When  you  run  over  even  an  imperfect  list  of  great  writers 
engaged  or  lately  engaged  on  this  subject,  you  will  not  fail  to  see 
the  justice  of  this  remark.  Think  of  what  an  amount  of  intel- 
lect, learning,  criticism,  and  study  is  represented  by  such  names 
as  these :  Paulus,  Schleiermacher,  Spinoza,  Kant,  the  Bauers, 
Hase,  Ewald,  Neander,  Meyer,  Weisse,  Ebrard,  Gfrozer,  Lange, 
Tholuck,  Ullman,  Dorner,  Riggenback,  Auberlein,  Olshaussen, 
Hengstenberg,  Bleek,  Kostlin,  Hilgenfeld,  Volkmar,  Holtzman, 
Reuss,  Keim,  Colani,  Scherer,  Nicolas,  Guizot,  Pressense,  and  a 
host  of  others  on  the  continent  alone,  not  to  say  any  thing  of 
writers  quite  recent  and  better  known  among  us  belonging  to 
Great  Britain  and  our  own  country. 

We  must  also  remember  that  however  acute,  learned,  able  and 
eloquent  may  have  been  the  Apologies  of  the  ancients,  and  the 
Defences  of  Revelation  made  in  former  days,  they  are  not  the 
weapons  now  required.  They  are  valuable  storehouses  and  mag- 
azines, but  our  times  require  new  armor.  Strauss,  Bauer,  and 
Renan  cannot  be  wisely  answered  in  the  same  way  that  our 
fathers  refuted  Hobbes,  Paine,  and  the  French  Encyclopedists. 

And  again,  either  from  personal  conviction  or  the  force  of 
education,  or  the  influence  of  public  opinion,  the  tone  of 
unbelieving  science   and   of   disbelieving   criticism,  as   well   as 


426  .  APPENDIX. 

the  greatly  improved  moral  character  of  the  champions  of 
unbelief  in  modern  times,  require  answers  of  a  very  difierent 
character  from  those  that  Avere  deemed  efficient  in  past  ages. 
The  great  names  known  in  the  advanced  schools  of  science  and 
of  criticism  who  are  arrayed  against  the  verity  of  our  sacred 
writers,  cannot  be  answered  by  the  charge  of  licentiousness  or 
ignorance  of  the  Gospel  narratives.  It  only  betrays  weakness  or 
rudeness  on  our  part  to  indulge  in  raillery  or  flippant  abuse,  or  to 
assume  that  they  are  ignorant  defamers  of  the  truth.  We  must 
be  careful  to  do  justice  to  our  opponents.  We  must  call  no  hard 
names,  but  refrain  from  all  kinds  of  persecution  for  opinion's 
sake.  It  is  unbecoming  and  useless  to  sneer  at  Renan^  or  rush 
madly  at  Ecce  Homo.  Let  us  rather  seek  to  obtain  a  more  and 
more  thorough  knowledge  of  the  text  of  Holy  Scripture  in  the 
originals,  and  a  close  and  still  more  close  personal  union  with 
THE  Eternal  Word. 

It  were  certainly  a  great  gain  to  truth  and  godliness,  if  our 
scholars  and  interpreters  of  Holy  Scripture  would  be  content  to 
help  us  to  find  out  the  mind  of  the  Spirit,  by  opening  up  to  us  the 
meaning  of  the  words  and  idioms  of  the  original  languages  of 
the  Scriptures,  and  not  attempt  to  make  Scripture  for  us,  as  so 
many  of  them  do.  So  many  of  our  learned  men  go  to  the  Scrip- 
tures not  to  find  out  what  they  really  teach,  but  to  get  arguments 
to  prove  or  support  their  own  peculiar  views,  that  it  seems  to  us 
the  sons  of  the  prophets  should  be  taught  Divinity  out  of  the 
Hebrew  and  Greek  Scriptures  as  the  main  text-books,  following 
their  own  order  and  method. 

It  is  related  of  the  very  learned  and  great  Selden^  that  when 
he  appeared  in  Parliament  he  "  was  regarded  in  the  light  of  a 
valuable  piece  of  national  property,  like  a  museum,  or  great  pub- 
lic library,  resorted  to  as  a  matter  of  course  and  a  matter  of 
right,  in  all  the  numerous  cases  in  which  assistance  was  wanted 
from  any  part  of  the  whole  compass  of  legal  and  historical  learn- 
ing. He  appeared  in  the  national  council  not  so  much  the  rep- 
resentative of  the  contemporary  inhabitants  of  a  particular  city, 
as  of  all  the  people  of  past  ages."  In  1643,  he  was  a  member  of 
the  famous  Assembly  of  Divines  at  Westminster,  where  he 
silenced  and  puzzled  the  great  theologians.  Sometimes,  accord- 
ing to  Whitelocke,  "  when  the  Divines  had  cited  a  text  of  Scripture 


APPENDIX.  427 

to  prove  their  assertion,  he  would  tell  them,  perhaps  in  their  little 
pocket  Bibles,  with  gilt  leaves,  which  they  would  often  pull  out 
and  read,  the  translation  might  be  thus,  but  the  Greek  or  Hebrew 
signified  thus  or  thus,  and  so  would  totally  silence  them."  Never 
was  there  an  age  of  the  world  requiring  more  mature,  solid,  and 
varied  learning  in  the  ministry  than  ours.  If  possible,  we  need 
ministers  of  the  Gospel  who  should  be  walking  libraries,  with 
hearts  in  them,  and  baptized  with  the  Holy  Spirit. 

YI.  We  need  a  more  unreserved,  full-hearted  consecration  to 
God  and  our  work.  One  of  our  most  amiable  and  eloquent  oppo- 
nents (Renan)  says,  a  fresh  contemplation  of  the  Holy  Land  is 
equal  to  a  fifth  Gospel.  May  we  not  hope  that  our  attempt  to 
present  a  picture  of  our  dear  Lord  as  he  is  described  by  the  voice 
of  the  Church  in  all  ages,  will  awaken  in  us  a  deeper  love  for 
Him  and  a  greater  devotedness  to  His  service  ?  There  is  life  in 
the  Church  for  the  7iatio7is,  but  it  is  not  the  Church  itself  substi- 
tuted for  Christ.  We  know  that  when  the  Israelites  profaned 
the  Ark  of  the  Covenant,  and  when  they  made  an  idol  of  it,  and 
trusted  in  it  instead  of  the  God  of  the  Ark,  they  were  defeated 
and  slain,  and  the  Ark  itself  was  taken  by  the  Philistines.  The 
power  of  the  Gospel,  which  was  "  the  power  of  God "  in  the 
earlier  ages  of  Christianity,  when  it  went  from  the  cross  to  the 
palace,  and  ascended  the  throne  of  the  Caesars,  consisted  in  the 
glories  of  Christ's  person,  the  wonders  of  His  redemption,  and  the 
infinite  worth  of  His  righteousness  and  the  merits  of  His  precious 
blood.  It  was  by  the  preaching  of  his  life,  death,  resurrection, 
and  ascension,  and  not  by  exalting  the  Church  and  its  sacraments, 
that  the  Gospel  prevailed  at  the  beginning.  And  it  is  in  th-e 
awakening  of  the  Church  to  the  fact,  that  Jesus  is  not  acknow- 
ledged even  in  his  own  House  in  his  true  character,  that  inspires 
us  with  hope.  When  Christians  are  aroused  by  unbelieving  sci- 
ence and  disbelieving  criticism  and  freezing  formalism  and  starv- 
ing ritualism  to  say,  "  Ye  have  taken  away  my  Lord,  and  I  know 
not  where  ye  have  laid  him,"  then  we  expect  Jesus  himself  to  be 
revealed. 

Brethren,  let  us  try  to  climb  fully  up  to  the  Cross  as  it  stands 
on  Calvary,  and  get  a  fresh  baptism  of  the  warm  blood  of  the 
Son  of  God.  The  world  around  us  is  earnestly  yearning  after 
])rogress,  but  for  the  most  part  they  are  looking  in  the  wrong 


428  APPEl^DIX. 

direction.  They  are  seeking  the  living  among  the  dead.  We  are 
in  the  midst  of  mighty  longings  to  break  the  chains  that  bind 
the  human  mind,  nor  can  this  tendency  be  repressed.  These 
longings  and  aspirations  are  as  innate  as  our  hopes  for  immortal- 
ity. What  then  shall  we  do  ?  When  the  world  is  crying  for 
bread,  shall  we  offer  it  a  stone  ?  Rather,  if  need  be,  let  us 
plunge  into  the  gloomy  catacombs,  or  dwell  in  caves  or  in  the 
open  fields,  or  dye  the  heather  with  our  blood,  as  our  fathers 
before  us  have  done,  in  order  that  we  may  walk  with  God  as 
Enoch  did.  Our  times  call  for  men  who  are  near  to  God,  who 
are  baptized  into  the  very  life  of  Christ — men,  the  springs  of 
whose  religious  life  are  deep,  who  cling  with  all  their  hearts  to 
the  Lord  Jesus — men  of  courage  and  devotion  like  the  Jesuit 
Xavier,  or  like  John  Knox,  whose  prayer,  supported  by  his  labors, 
was,  Lord  Jesus,  give  me  Scotland,  or  I  die !  And  his  prayer 
prevailed.  Men  are  now  called  for  who  are  willing  to  be,  to  do, 
and  to  suffer  every  thing,  out  of  love  to  Jesus  and  the  souls  of 
men — to  travel,  labor,  endure  hardships,  and  the  perils  of  the  seas 
and  of  all  lands  for  His  sake,  and  to  consider  it  an  honor  to  suffer 
in  his  cause.  We  want  men  who  will  serve  God  in  every  thing, 
and  enjoy  God  in  all  things,  and  endure  all  things  to  win  souls  for 
Christ. 

Let  us  strive  to  make  our  Lord  himself  our  model,  and  to  fol- 
low his  Apostles  as  they  followed  Him.  Let  us  remen4)er  that  all 
truth  on  all  subjects  was  perfectly  known  to  Him,  and  yet  he  did 
not  meddle  with  secular  or  temporal  themes.  Although  full  of 
the  knowledge  of  every  thing  beautiful  and  great  in  the  universe, 
and  possessing  an  unerring  acquaintance  with  all  the  relations  of 
society.  He  would  not  even  settle  a  dispute  between  two  brothers 
about  an  inheritance,  because  it  was  a  matter  provided  for  by  the 
civil  government,  and  lay  outside  of  the  great  scheme  of  redemp- 
tion, to  complete  and  unfold  which  was  the  mission  of  his  life, 
and  the  purpose  of  his  death  and  ascension. 

If  we  could  realize  more  of  the  spirit  of  Jerome,  who  said 
that  he  never  entered  the  pulpit  but  that  it  seemed  to  him  he 
heard  the  trumpet  of  the  judgment-day  sounding  in  his  ears,  then 
we  should  have  more  correct  views  of  our  responsibility  as  men 
set  to  watch  for  souls.  O,  if  we  could  but  feel  that  our  fellow-men 
are  sinners,  and  lift  ourselves  and  them  off  our  planet,  and  look 


APPENDIX.  429 

upon  ourselves  and  them  as  before  Gotl,  amid  the  avvful  scenes  of 
the  last  day,  then  we  shouhl  find  no  time  for  any  other  subject  in 
our  pulpits  but  the  way  of  salvation  for  sinners  through  Christ 
crucified. 

There  is  no  need  for  us  to  leave  the  Cross  to  preach  on  literary, 
scientific,  economical,  and  political  subjects.  There  are  others 
quite  as  able,  and  in  all  probability  much  better  prepared  to  take 
care  of  these  subjects  than  we  are ;  and,  besides,  it  belongs  to 
them  to  do  so.  These  are  not  the  elements  of  our  sacred  calling. 
We  are  sure  to  soil  our  robes,  and  to  put  ourselves  in  a  wrong 
position,  and  to  appear  to  a  disadvantage,  whenever  we  leave  the 
duties  to  wliich  we  are  consecrated  for  lower  themes.  Our  busi- 
ness is  to  show  unto  men  the  way  of  salvation — to  know  the  Word 
of  God,  and  cause  the  people  to  understand  it. 

Let  us  take  hold  of  the  Cross  of  Christ,  and  lift  it  up  as  high 
as  we  can,  and  cry,  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God !  Let  the  world 
drift  as  it  may  in  the  vast  ocean  ;  let  speculations  and  theories 
run  as  high  as  they  may,  and  surge  and  boil,  and  roar  and  whirl 
around  us  ;  we  have  only  one  thing  to  do  :  to  cling  to  the  Cross, 
and  busy  ourselves  with  reading  its  history,  and  trying  to  know 
its  virtues,  and  make  our  fellow-men  acquainted  with  them.  It  is 
when  we  are  nearest  to  the  Cross  of  Jesus,  and  feel  His  blood  to 
be  most  precious,  and  feel  ourselves  so  identified  witli  Him  that 
He  seems  to  be  walking  with  us,  as  if  His  heart  were  throbbing 
against  ours  as  we  are  toiling  on  in  the  path  of  duty,  that  we 
are  the  best  prepared  to  represent  Him  and  plead  His  cause.  Let 
us  live  in  the*  light  of  eternity  reflected  upon  us  from  the  Cross. 
Let  us  try  to  get  the  baptism  of  the  truth  and  of  the  blood  of 
expiation  warm  on  our  conscience,  in  view  of  the  account  we 
must  give  of  our  stewardship,  and  then  we  may  hope  for  power 
and  success. 

"UNTO  HIM  THAT  LOVED  FS,  AND  WASHED  US 
FROM  OUR  SINS  IN  HIS  OWN  BLOOD,  AND  HATH 
MADE  US  KINGS  AND  PRIESTS  UNTO  GOD  AND 
HIS  FATHER ;  TO  HIM  BE  GLORY  AND  DOMINION 
FOR  EVER  AND  EVER.    AMEN:' 


CONTENTS  TO  APPENDIX. 


APPENDIX,  page  383. 

I. 

THE  VITAL  IMPORTANCE   OF  THE   QUESTION  NOW  AT  ISSUE. 

PAGE 

Reason  for  this  Appendix — Lord  Bacon  and  Plutarch — Atheism  or  Supersti- 
tion— We  become  like  the  God  we  worship  sincerely — Religious  Belief 
germinal  in  the  Human  Soul — Religious  Belief  gives  distinct  Characteris- 
tics to  a  People,  as  in  Greece  and  Rome 386-389 

II. 

OPINIONS  CONCERNING  CHRIST  BEFORE   THE   COUNCIL  OF 

NICiEA. 

Gnostics,  Docetse,  Ebionites,  Cerinthus,  Basilides,  Sabellius,  Patripassians, 
Pauliauists,  Arius. — Council  op  Nic^a,  its  Character  and  Occasion. — 
Modern  Arianism — Dr.  Bellows — "A  Coat  of  many  Colors  " — The  Reach 
of  the  History  of  Redemption — The  Emperor  in  the  Council — Many  of  its 
Members  Confessors,  who  bore  Marks  on  their  Persons  of  their  Suffer- 
ings from  Persecution  for  their  Belief  in  the  Christ  of  the  Apostles — 
How  this  Council  honored  the  Word  of  God — All  human  Authorities 
fallible — National  Influence  of  Creeds — Violence  of  Ecclesiastical  Coun- 
cils— Modern  Gnosticism — "Divers  and  Strange  Doctrines" — Moham- 
med's Religious  Education — Eastern  Misbelief. 389-402 

HL 

ASPECT  OF  MODERN  THOUGHT  CONCERNING  THE  CHRIST  OF  THE 
EVANGELISTS. 

The  Written  and  the  Incarnate  Word — Every  Age  has  its  Great  Questions — 
Christianity  a  Great  Fact  in  the  Nineteenth  Century — Sirauss's  Attempt 
to  account  for  it — Tischendorfs  "Time"  of  our  Gospels — A  Survey  of 
the  Thought  of  Christendom — Ours  an  Age  of  FaitJi,  Unbdief,  Disbelief, 


432  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

and  Misbelief— Ebrard  on  the  Critical  Schools — Unbelieving  Science — TVo 
claim  Free  Inquiry — Disbelieving  Criticism — Stuauss's  Tlieory  analyzed 
and  distinctly  stated,  and  the  proper  Answer  sketched — Renan's  Legends 
quite  as  unphilosophical  and  unsatisfactory — The  Tubingen  School..  .402-420 

Finally — 

A  FEW  EARNEST  WORDS  TO  THEOLOGICAL   STUDENTS    AND 
YOUNG  MINISTERS  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 

FuUer^s  Division  of  a  Subject — A  World-wide  View — Courage  to  look  at  the 
Foe — ^Not  allow  our  Opponents  to  fight  "Men  of  Straw" — Insist  on  the 
Facts  of  Christianity — Not  underrate  the  Strength  of  our  Adversaries — 
Great  Learning  as  well  as  Devotedness  required — Unreserved  Consecra- 
tion to  our  Work — Must  preach  Cheist  more,  and  nothing  but 
Cheist 420-429 


THE  END. 


'•^^^  OF  r-j-'       -^ 

usiveejitt: 


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